Exotic Ladakh with Turtuk

Leh is the joint capital and largest city of Ladakh, a union territory of India. Leh located in the Leh district was also the historical capital of the Kingdom of Ladakh. The seat of the kingdom, Leh Palace the former residence of the royal family of Ladakh, was built in the same style and about the same time at the Potala Palace in Tibet. Leh is at an altitude of 3524 m (11562 ft), and is connected via national highway 1 to Srinagar in the southwest and to Manali in the south via the Leh Manali Highway (part of national highway 3).

Leh was for centuries an important stopover on trade routes along the Indus Valley between Tibet, Kashmir, India & China. The main goods carried were Salt, Grain, Pashm or Cashmere wool, Charas or Cannabis resin from the Tarim Basin, Indigo, Silk yarn and Banaras brocade.

Nubra, also called Dumra, is a historical region of Ladakh, India that is currently administered as a subdivision and a tehsil in the Leh district. Its inhabited areas form a tri-armed valley cut by the Nubra and Shyok Rivers. Its Tibetan name Dumra means “valley of flowers”. Diskit, the headquarters of Nubra, is 120kms north of Leh, the capital of Ladakh.

The Shyok River meets the Nubra River (or Siachan River) to form a large valley that separates the Ladakh and Karakoram Ranges. The Shyok river is a tributary of the Indus river. The average altitude of the valley is more than 10,000 feet (3000m) above the sea level. The most common way to access this valley is to travel over the Khardung La Pass from Leh.

Pangong Lake or Pangong Tso is an endorheic lake spanning eastern Ladakh and west Tibet situated at an elevation of 4225m (13,862ft). It is 134km (83m) long and divided into five sub-lakes, called Pangong Tso, Tso Nyak, Rum Tso (twin lakes) and Nyak Tso. Approximately 50% of the length of the overall lake lies within Tibet administered by China, 40% in Ladakh, India and the remaining 10% is disputed and is a de facto buffer zone between India and China. The lake is 5kms (3.1m) wide at its broadest point. All together is covers almost 700kms. During winters the lake freezes completely, despite being saline water. It has a land-locked basin separated from the Indus River basin by a small elevated ridge, but is believed to have been part of the latter in prehistoric times.