This blog was first published at dunya news blog

It has a central hall with four pillars for ceiling support and a terrace that was under construction during my visit. The main hall of the mosque also has a balcony that provides additional space for the people during Friday sermons.

The pleasant thing besides the well-maintained mosque is that the maintenance work follows the traditional design of the mosque. I wish the mosque in Shigar Valley could be maintained just like the one in Khaplu.

Chaqchan Mosque

As I came out of the kitchen, which was the final point of a guided tour de Khaplu Palace, I pointed my camera towards the peak that was standing tall among all the other peaks of that mountain range. I asked the local student, who was my guide also, “What is the name of this peak?”

I had come to Skardu valley just three days ago and was there on a day long excursion as part of my trip. The whole valley was coloured in autumn nuance. Khaplu is a famous town in Skardu valley which is located 103 km east of Skardu. As you move alongside Indus River, you pass scenic points including the junction where Shyok River merges itself with Indus.  Another amazing point that depicts symmetry of parallel trees lined on both sides of the road making it one of the most breathtaking scenes in Skardu. That specific place is known as Gawari village. I purposefully visited Skardu during autumn as being a photography enthusiast it provides me an immensely rich colour spectrum.  So with the Blue sky and Gray Metallic road, the symmetrical autumn trees popped just perfectly as shown in the photo below.

Continuing on the road as you pass the Gwari villiage , the small city of Khaplu is not far. Khaplu is famous for being the center of governments in the ancient times and still a city of importance. It’s a small city with a fort cum palace that was used by the local rulers in the ancient times. The two important architectures here are the Khaplu Palace and the Chaqchan Mosque, out of which I will leave the former for a later blog.

Facade of Khaplu Palace

Wooden ceiling of Khaplu Palace

A room of khaplu palace as part of Marriott hotel For the visitors who visit this heritage site, a fee of Rs. 200 is charged that is nothing compared to the beauty of this fort. This fort is located higher than the downtown of Khaplu and hence is surrounded by beautiful and surreal forest. And when in the morning the people light their kitchens, the smoke makes it a feast for the eyes.  A guide is provided by the management that gives a nice overview of history. He guided me in understanding the purpose of various rooms that were designed to work as a storage during Winter and the central royal kitchen as well as the arsenal of the royal force. The guided tour ends at the restaurant which is formed at the terrace of the fort and it was there that I saw a sky-kissing peak  on the Karakoram mountain range. I asked that boy the name of the peak. He looked and said, “No specific name Sir Ji, we just call it ‘Bees Futti’ (The twenty feet high)”.

The bees futti

This article was first published at dunya news blogs.

Recently the government of Punjab has inaugurated the facility of tourist bus in Lahore, the first of its kind in Pakistan. The primary, stated, objective is to promote tourism with the secondary objective of having a cut piece in newspapers in favour of the CM and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N). For me, however, the primary reason is the media atten

The concept of tourist bus came from the developed countries where the places of historical importance are given adequate attention and are preserved with maximum possible care. Such is unfortunately not practiced in Punjab. Because it’s a Shahbaz Sharif initiative, let’s talk about the developments after 2007 when he was sworn in as the CM for second time. Luckily I started my tourism activity in the same year. Wandering in Punjab and then to northern areas has been my passion from the day I started earning coins. At that time, I was living in Multan which is known to be among the oldest cities of subcontinent. The Multan Fort that is now a park with some ruins left. It is dying a slow death. I have heard that there is some committee that is working on the possible framework (still the framework) to preserve the heritage.

Other than that, the forts in Punjab are all in terrible condition; particularly the UNESCO heritage Rohtas Fort that has witnessed no improvement in the past 7 years. Similarly, countless historical sites inside Lahore are neglected. The most interesting among all is an abandoned Sikh Gurdwara located just 5 km from Jati Umra. This Sikh gurdwara is a perfect example of religious bigotry and negligence towards our heritage.

While searching about the historical background of this antediluvian site I found this interesting piece.

When I visited that gurdwara with my friend in 2012 it had a wall that indicates the government land and within it a poor Christian family was residing. A two-storey wall, a doom and a room was all that is left of that historical land. I wish that someday the CM of Punjab, while traveling on his helicopter, can see that a historic place just beneath his nose is dilapidated and I wish he gives more importance to the real and original work to preserve it, instead of doing fancy deeds to get a one-day coverage.

The following information about Shyok river is given by Raheel Adnan.
Historic touch - extracted from "Karakoram and Western Himalayas" - 1909 by Flippo de Flippi. The Italians travelled from Pinidi - Kohala - Jhelum Valley - Sri Nagar - Sonamarg - Dras - Olding - Gambat - Gol and onwards to Skardu. The team led by Duke of Abruzzi attempted K2. "About eight miles below Parkutta the Indus meets one of its greatest confluents, the river Shyok, which comes down from the Dapsang table-land, gathering in its course of nearly 400 miles the waters of the numberless glaciers which flow down the southern slopes of half the Karakoram. As at Dras, the meeting of the waters takes place at the bottom of a narrow gorge. Oestreich has identified at a height of from 700 to 1,000 feet above the present level, on the walls of both valleys, what he considers the remains of level terraces which marked the confluence of these two rivers at an earlier period. There are signs which indicate that the Shyok was at one time filled up by a glacier which projected into the Indus valley, where it formed a barrier some 1,000 feet in height, but did not, however, dam the course of the river. This phenomenon can be seen to-day in the upper Nubra valley, and we shall find a most clearly marked example in the case of the Biafo glacier. The whole of this region is still very little known, and the data we possess regarding its glacial history, as well as all other questions concerning the Indus basin, are so incomplete as to be hopelessly insufficient to support any general theory. As early as 1847 Thomson observed that the he of the loose rocks and detritus at the mouth of the gorges and lateral valleys suggested a glacial origin. Conway identified them more explicitly as loose boulders and moraine residuum. Oestreich believes that the Indus valley itself was never occupied by a glacier, but only the tributary valleys. In fact, geologists in general seem to hold that the Himalayan region has never been the scene of periods of " Inlandeis " (hke Greenland, Europe and North America), nor of large " pedemontane " glaciers (such as the Malaspina glacier in Alaska, and the former glaciers on the northern slopes of the Alps) ; but has merely witnessed periods of very considerable expansion of the glaciers in the mountains themselves, such as took place in the valley of the Po, where only the largest glaciers succeeded in emerging from the valleys as far as the edge of the plain. Godwin Austen is of this opinion, and cites indications of two distinct glacial periods, separated by an interval of milder chmate. Strachey and MedUcott hold similar views."