KARGIL, LADAKH

                               Kargil, Ladakh

                                A town located in the lap of Himalayas. 
 
 
Kargil town is 204 kms away from Srinagar and 230 kms from Ladakh. Kargil is the 2nd largest town of Ladakh.

The town is located at the junction of famous silk route and caravans from china, Yakkand, Afghanistan, and Indian plains used to go through Kargil in the past. These countries were dealing with silk, carpets and precious stones. Now there are only ruins of these caravan Sarais which once was very famous for trade and silk route. Kargil is the main town which connects Srinagar – Leh , Leh – Zanaskar. The town Kargil is situated on the famous River Suru and Nallah Wakha at an altitude of 2700 mts. Kargil has about 1,43, 388 souls as per the current census. Kargil is also located 60 kms from Drass which is the 2nd coldest place in the world. Kargil facing the northern areas across the LOC like other regions Kargil has temperate climate. Summers are hot with cool nights while winters are long and chilly and sometimes temperature often dropping to - 480C. 

Present day, Kargil district was once known as "Purig" earlier consisted of a number of small, but independent kingdoms, which includes Chiktan, Pukhar, and Suru Valley and these kingdoms often fight among themselves over small issues. 

  Kargil is also famous for ‘Kargil War’ between India and Pakistan, which was held in 1999, in which INDIA WON. People in kargil are of mixed races, like Dhard and Tibetan Descents. The inhabitants of kargil were adherents of Tibetan Bhuddishm until the 15th centry when muslim missioners begen to convert local people towards other religion. Today 90% of kargil’s population are shia muslims, 5% sunni and 5% Tibetan Buddhist.  The places around kargil town are Goma Kargil, Poyen and Baghi Khumini Kargil and Kargil Museum. Kargil mainly serves as an ideal base station for nature and adventure activities like trekking, rafting, camping, in Himalayas. Kargil is also a base for trekking a short trip to Mulbekh Gompa (a statue of Future Buddha, 9mtr high) build in the 7th century. Kargil also offers interesting walks. One of the famous walk is leading to goma kargil, the town of kargil is very small just 100 – 200 shops which remains busy all the time. Most of the shops in Kargil town deal in common daily necessities.

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