Discover Khunjerab Pass

The Karakoram Highway stretches 1,300 kilometers from Hasan Abdal in Pakistan to Kashgar in China, tracing ancient Silk Road routes through some of Earth’s most formidable mountain terrain where the Himalaya, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush ranges converge. Construction began in 1966 as a joint Chinese-Pakistani strategic project during the Cold War; when it was completed in 1979 and finally opened to the public in 1986, approximately 810 Pakistani and 200 Chinese workers had perished—mostly in catastrophic landslides and falls from cliff faces—to carve this passage through the Karakoram Range. The Chinese workers who died during the two decades of construction are buried in a memorial cemetery in Gilgit that remains maintained by both governments.

At its highest point, the highway reaches 4,693 meters at Khunjerab Pass—the world’s highest paved international border crossing, connecting Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan to China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The name derives from the Wakhi language: ‘khun’ meaning house and ‘jerab’ referring to a spring-fed creek, though local usage translates it as ‘Valley of Blood’ referencing the bandits who once preyed on Silk Road caravans. Before the highway’s completion, only the rough Mintaka and Kilik passes connected these regions, traversable solely by pack animals. Today the pass marks a transition between left-hand traffic in Pakistan and right-hand traffic in China, and hosts the world’s highest ATM operated by the National Bank of Pakistan at the border station.