Discover Passu

The Passu Cones—known locally as Tupopdan, meaning ‘sun-gulping mountains’—are among the most photographed peaks in Pakistan and one of the defining images of the entire Karakoram Range. Rising to 6,106 meters in a series of impossibly sharp points, they resemble Gothic cathedral spires more than natural geological formations. The peaks catch the last rays of sunset long after the valley below has fallen into shadow, their knife-edge ridges turning gold and rose while the glaciers beneath them glow blue-white. From the Karakoram Highway, the Cones frame the Hussaini Suspension Bridge in what has become one of Pakistan’s most iconic and widely shared photographic compositions.

The Cones belong to the Batura Muztagh, a sub-range of the Karakoram that includes some of the region’s most dramatic and technically challenging summits. Nearby Passu Sar reaches 7,478 meters and was first climbed in 1994 by a German expedition that approached via the Shimshal Valley. The Cathedral Peaks themselves remain unclimbed above their lower shoulders due to the extreme steepness and instability of the rock. But it is the visual impact that draws photographers and trekkers from around the world—their distinctive serrated silhouette visible from dozens of kilometers along the highway. The Wakhi name Tupopdan captures their character perfectly: mountains that swallow the sun whole each evening.