Hunza Valley

ValleysGilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

August·Peaking now

Jul–Sep

High summer opens everything — all passes and the Khunjerab border road, glacier treks and the July–August apricot harvest; days are warm, often into the 20s°C, though an August–September monsoon fringe can haze the peaks by midday.

Year-round Rakaposhi's near-vertical ice wall, the Karakoram giants around it, Attabad Lake's turquoise and the old Baltit and Altit forts stand over the valley every day of the year, reached by the Karakoram Highway to Karimabad.

The Hunza Valley lies beneath Rakaposhi, the only mountain on Earth that climbs almost 6,000 metres from its base to its summit without a single break — a wall of ice 7,788 metres high rising straight from the riverbank. The valley itself is a green corridor through the Karakoram range of Gilgit-Baltistan, in northern Pakistan, its terraced villages set around 2,400 metres among apricot and cherry orchards and tall poplars, framed by glacier-capped giants like Ultar Sar and Diran. For centuries a branch of the Silk Road ran through here, and the valley still speaks Burushaski, a language isolate with no proven relative anywhere in the world. Above the main town, Karimabad, stands the 700-year-old Baltit Fort, seat of Hunza's rulers, the Mirs, until the 1940s and restored as a museum in the 1990s. The Karakoram Highway is the only road in, a paved successor to the old caravan track that still carries on to the Chinese border. Fifteen kilometres above Karimabad it runs into Attabad Lake, a 22-kilometre stretch of turquoise created in January 2010 when a landslide buried a village, dammed the Hunza River and drowned part of the highway; for five years people crossed it by boat, until a chain of tunnels reopened the route in 2015. Spring covers the valley in pink and white blossom; in autumn the poplars and mulberries go gold and crimson, while the snow on the peaks holds through every season. Climb to the Eagle's Nest viewpoint at Duikar for first light on Rakaposhi and the slender Lady Finger spire, and on clear nights the thin mountain air opens onto a thick field of stars.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Blossom and gold are two short windows — apricot and cherry bloom for about two weeks in early April, and the poplars peak gold around mid-October; deep winter can snow the highway shut.
Climb to Eagle's Nest for dawn, not midday — the Duikar viewpoint above Karimabad catches first light on Rakaposhi and the Lady Finger spire, before haze and glare flatten the peaks later in the day.
The valley's single road can close at any time — rockfall and snow still shut sections of the Karakoram Highway, the one overland link in, so keep any schedule loose rather than tight.
Attabad Lake's turquoise runs deepest at midday — jet-boats and painted wooden dongas ply the water, and the colour turns most intense when the sun sits high over the cliffs, flatter earlier and later.
Dress modestly and ask before photographing people — Hunza is welcoming but largely Ismaili and conservative, so covered shoulders and knees, and a quick word before portraits, are appreciated.

Things to do

1
Explore Baltit Fort
Walk the 700-year-old fort above Karimabad, where the Mirs of Hunza once ruled, and step onto its timber balconies for the full sweep of the valley with Rakaposhi rising beyond.
2
Drive the Karakoram Highway
Follow the KKH as it threads the gorge along the old Silk Road line, past stone-walled villages and beneath the ice face of Rakaposhi, all the way toward the Chinese border.
3
Watch Karimabad turn gold in October
From the rooftop cafes of Karimabad, look out over terraces of poplar and mulberry that flare gold and crimson each October, the white peaks holding steady behind them.
4
Trace the turquoise Hunza River
Stand where the road hangs above the Hunza River and watch it wind, pale turquoise with glacier melt, through a gorge walled by bare rock and, higher up, by snow.
5
Sunrise at Eagle's Nest
Ride up before dawn to the Duikar ridge and watch the sun ignite Rakaposhi, Diran and the Lady Finger one by one, while Karimabad still lies in shadow far below.
6
Boat across Attabad Lake
Push out onto the lake that a 2010 landslide created almost overnight, its water an unreal turquoise against dry cliffs; wooden dongas and speedboats leave from the shore beside the highway tunnels.
7
Walk the valley in apricot blossom
For about two weeks in early April the terraces fill with pink and white apricot and cherry blossom, drifts of it set against the snow peaks, as villagers open orchards and rooftops to the view.