Kargil district is the Muslim-majority area of the union territory of Ladakh.
Cities
Map of Kargil district
- 1 Kargil — key for access to Zanskar area, and a necessary stop on the way from Leh to Srinagar and the Vale of Kashmir.
- 2 Drass — A small town west of Kargil used primarily by truck drivers as an overnight stop
- 3 Padum
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Other destinations
Frozen Nerak Falls, Zanskar River, February 2013
- 1 Zanskar - one of the remotest regions of the Ladakh. Zanskar is spread over an area of about 300 km², which is only accessible through high passes. This valley is higher than any other valley in the Ladakh region and located in the inner Himalaya. Rainfall is very low and the climate is very harsh.
Understand
Get in
Vehicles driving through the Zoji La Pass, on the way from Kargil district to the Kashmir Valley
By plane
Kargil Airport is a military air base and is not open for commercial flights. The nearest commercial airport is in Srinagar.
By car
There are two roads into the Kargil district: one from Manali in Himachal Pradesh in the south and one from Srinagar in the west. Both routes are equally spectacular in different ways, and both are time-consuming with winding, narrow roads and numerous military checkpoints. Most people passing through Kargil are going from Leh to Srinagar, or vice versa, and have booked a through ticket.
Get around
See
Padum Valley
- Kargil War Memorial. The memorial commemorates the soldiers that died in the 1999 Kargil War between India and Pakistan. The main feature within the memorial is a pink sandstone wall which has the names of the soldiers who lost their lives engraved upon it.
- Padum Valley. Padum sits at an altitude of 3505 m from the sea level. It is the capital of the ancient Zanskar, and is administrative headquarters of the Zanskar region. Padum has population of 1500-1600. Padum is a very scarcely inhabited valley in the Zanskar. Padum is one of the famous trekking destinations in Ladakh.