Karakoram Highway

The Karakoram Highway Karakoram Highway or ( KKH, Urdu شاہراہ قراقرم; Chinese喀喇昆仑 公路) is an international highway that connects Kashgar in Xinjiang province ( western China ) with Havelian in northwestern Pakistan. The road to 1284 km through scenic and culturally diverse areas along the mountains of the Pamir, Karakoram, Himalaya and some of the Hindu Kush and is not passable in winter. Currently, the road is being expanded.

Route

The KKH runs past the eight thousand meter Nanga Parbat. The highest point of the track is reached with 4693 m at the Khunjerab Pass, which marks the border between Pakistan and China. The KKH is thus the highest highway in the world.

History

The Karakoram Highway was built jointly by China and Pakistan within about 20 years and was completed in 1978. The construction presented due to frequent landslides in some mountain slopes and the height a major challenge Officially Pakistani and 82 Chinese workers were used in the construction 810 killed. Since 1986, the road is open for tourism. On the Chinese side, he is part of the national road G314, which leads east then from Kashgar to Urumqi.

After a massive landslide in the Hunza Valley on January 4, 2010, thus pent Attabad Lake has now set 22 km (as of May 2010) of the Karakoram Highway under water. It is feared that the dam could break, with disastrous consequences for the infrastructure downstream.

Extension

At present, China is building the most part consisting of gravel road distance from a paved multi-lane road. The aim is to reduce the journey time from 30 to 20 hours and to make the track in the winter and for large trucks drive on. Which is thought to increase the export of goods to Pakistan and exported from the port of Karachi throughout the world. The construction costs the equivalent of $ 400 million. Also planned is a pipeline along the road to purchase natural gas from Iran.

Pictures

Route along the river Indus

The Karakorum Highway in the Xinjiang region in China

Buddhist rock carvings at Chilas on KKH in Pakistan

Archeology

Between Chilas and Gilgit below the Nanga Parbat located on the cliffs along the Indus about 50,000 image drawings ( petroglyphs ) from approximately 10,000 years of cultural history. They threaten to go down when the Diamer - Basha Dam is built.