Karakoram Highyway Bike / Cycle Tour

Karakoram is a Turkish language it means ‘crumbling rock’ is an incredible feat of engineering. The original track started from Xian in China, Karakoram highway, connecting the Northern Areas of Pakistan to the ancientSilk Road, runs approximately 1,300 km from Kashgar, to Havelian, located in the Abbottabad District of Pakistan. 

As it became popular, the route was used by the invaders, raiders, explorers, hunters, missionaries and philosophers. Buddhism, Islam and Christianity came to this region through the Silk Route. The road has also given mountaineers and trekkers easier access to the many high mountains in the area. High mountain ranges and glaciers are visible from the road, which also passes through green valleys of great natural beauty. Rock art and petroglyphs are found all along the road. 

The Silk Road construction started from 1966 and completed in 1978(20 years)During construction 810 Pakistani and 82 Chinese workers lost their lives, mostly in landslides and falls, while building the Karakoram Highway. 

The Karakoram Highway (KKH) follows one of the principal Silk Road routes and is the backbone of this stunning mountain bike holiday. The KKH is a remarkable engineering achievement. Pakistanis proudly refer to the road as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Built in conjunction with the Chinese, the KKH was carved into the Indus Valley above the furious torrent of the Indus River, right up through the Hunza Valley and over the mighty Karakoram Mountains via Khunjerab Pass into China. 

The Hunza Nagar offers a wide variety of mountain scenery, peaks above seventhousand meters including such giant as Ultar, Spantik, Diran and 7,788 meter Rakaposhi. The Valley embraces enormous glaciers that tumble down to the roadsides, and tiny villages with their carefully terraced and irrigated fields clinging precariously to the valley slopes. The barren upland plateau of the Pamirs that is straddled by the Khunjerab Pass eventually gives way to the fertile fields and apricot orchards that made the Valley world famous. This incredible diversity of landscape is this mountain bike tour’s great appeal, and the reason why the upper KKH offers perhaps the most rewarding biking anywhere in the world. Himalayan Range.