Khaplu Palace
Nineteenth Century Palace Of The Yabgo Rajas Of Khaplu, Restored By The Aga Khan Trust For Culture And Run As A Heritage Hotel And Museum · Khaplu, Gilgit-Baltistan
Khaplu Palace was built around 1840 by the Yabgo rajas of Khaplu, in a high green valley on the Shyok River east of Skardu, and it is the finest surviving royal residence in Baltistan. It is a four-storey building of timber, stone and mud brick with a carved wooden balcony pavilion on top, blending Tibetan, Kashmiri and Central Asian styles, set in walled orchards with snow peaks behind. Like Shigar, it was restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture using local craftsmen, and it now operates as a heritage hotel with a museum of the royal household. Khaplu town rises in terraces above it, and nearby stands the Chaqchan Mosque, traditionally founded in the fourteenth century and one of the oldest in the region, a mosque of the Noorbakhshi community built of wood in a style closer to a Tibetan temple than an Arab mosque. Khaplu is also the gateway to the Hushe valley and the great peaks of Masherbrum and K6. It is further than Shigar, quieter, and for many people the more beautiful of the two.
Khaplu town, Ghanche District, on the Shyok River, Khaplu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
The palace operates as a hotel all year with rooms booked in advance; non-guests can tour the museum for a fee during the day. Khaplu is about two and a half to three hours by road from Skardu along the Shyok. Winter is cold and services may be reduced.