Discover Karakoram Highway

The Karakoram Highway began as a Cold War dream—a strategic corridor linking China and Pakistan through terrain where only mule tracks had existed. Construction started in 1959 as a joint venture between the two nations, but no one anticipated what lay ahead. For twenty years, workers blasted through solid granite, bridged raging torrents, and carved roads into cliff faces where a single misstep meant certain death. Avalanches, landslides, and rockfalls claimed more than 810 Pakistani and 200 Chinese lives—an average of one death for every two kilometers of road.

The completed highway climbs from the Punjab plains to Khunjerab Pass at 4,714 meters, making it the highest paved international road on Earth. It crosses the point near Jaglot where three of the world’s mightiest mountain ranges—the Hindu Kush, Himalayas, and Karakoram—collide in a geological symphony of tectonic force. The Chinese workers who died are buried in a memorial cemetery in Gilgit, their sacrifice honored annually by both nations. When the road finally opened to the public in 1986, it was immediately dubbed the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World.’