The valley is at the eastern face of Nanga Parbat, a top 8,125 excessive.

The landscape that makes up the valley isn't most effective of enormous beauty however is also, composed of huge geographic variety and contrasts, offering the adventurous visitor endless trekking alternatives, as well as the possibility to get immersed in a culture that now not many travelers have ever had the chance to enjoy.

Given its big dimensions, it might take a long time to explore the valley completely. some nearby Pakistanis claim that Deosai Plains, Rama Lake, and Rupal are the places which you need to go to. however, while it’s genuine that those places have a natural splendor, in addition, they have a tendency to be the maximum commercial ones, as they get swamped with nearby travelers during the excessive season.



That being stated, as an unbiased traveler and a lover of proper reports, for my part, the trading path that connected Gilgit-Baltistan with the Indian subcontinent is, via ways, the itinerary that offers the maximum exciting attitude.



for hundreds of years, this route was used as a commercial connection between Gilgit and the location of Kashmir. The Gibians used to visit Srinagar (the principal metropolis in Kashmir) to take a look at, as well as uploading a wide sort of merchandise, together with the famous Kashmiri fabrics.

 Astore Guide: The 3 red markers have a place with Rupal, Rama Lake, and Deosai Fields, the most explorer places inside the valley.    The blue markers belong to the buying and selling course that ends in Kashmir.



due to the fact that, down the generations, several organizations have exceeded thru Astore, nowadays the valley enjoys a huge linguistic and cultural range, Shina* being the most, not unusual language, such as a big amount of Kashmiri human beings, who decided to settle down in these mountains.

This massive movement of humans is, in all likelihood, one of the motives why the Astore Valley is one of the few places in Gilgit-Baltistan in which Sunni Muslims are the general public, belonging to the Wahhabi department, the maximum conservative wing of Islam.



after I arrived in a few faraway villages, all at once all the women ran interior their homes, as they feared a foreigner seeing their faces. The men from the village approached me, shook my hand and, kindly, requested me to go away.

Yeah, all this cultural and historic historical past is quite exciting but, it seems that this valley has lots greater to offer. In this direction, which essentially follows the go with the flow of the Astore River, the panorama adjustments significantly every few kilometers.



Arid plains, from which large, sharp, rocky mountains seem, on both facets, are the characteristic landscape from the start of the valley. simply stroll a touch bit similarly and the arid panorama will become green, fertile meadows with extremely good perspectives of the Nanga Parbat, an eight,125 meters summit.



maintain following the river and the valley adopts a more alpine man or woman, the temperature drops and, with the aid of the quit of the course, you will find yourself strolling among glaciers. the character of Astore is wild and competitive, as everything is made on a giant scale. this is a real blessing to your eyes.



After Astore metropolis (the capital), most of the valley is so far away that the only manner to touch the outside world is thru a land smartphone. here, cellular phones don’t exist. In winter, which runs from the stop of October until March, Astore turns completely isolated, considering all of the roads are blocked with the aid of lots of snow. however, no matter this isolation, Astore has a population of over 70,000 population, spread across extra than one hundred villages.



many of those villagers have in no way visible or talked to a foreigner, this means that that the well-known Pakistani hospitality receives expanded a hundred-fold. You won’t only have your stomach filled with plenty of tea and dal (lentils) however you may also be invited to their domestic to sleep.



The population of the remotest areas of Astore are simple folks that carry lifestyles of self-subsistence however, for their own pleasure, they’d instead starve than not offer you a meal. And this is the real, real truth.