Pakistan stands at the crossroads of South and Central Asia. This unique geographical position has given the country immense social and natural diversity. There exist many features, cultures and honors unique to Pakistan. Following are some of these surprises.
1. The Biggest Glaciers (Siachin):
Siachen Glacier is a lovely Glacier of Pakistan,Some Facts About Siachen Glacier:
1. Siachen Glacier is the Worlds Biggest Glacier outside the two Poles.
2. It is also the world's Highest Glacier.
3. That is why it is refered to as "The Third Pole."
4. It is also the World's Highest Battle Ground Ever!!!! (battles have occured here in-excess of 22,000 ft!!!!!).
2. The Worlds 5th Largest Mosque:
Name = Masjid Faisal - Faisal MosqueCapacity = 74,000 approx.
Area = 43,296 meter square
City = Islamabad
Country= Pakistan
Since = Year 1986
The Shah Faisal Mosque in Islamabad can accommodate almost 100000 worshipers. Completed in 1976, it could at that time probably hold the citys entire population. Built with Saudi donations, was named for its King and designed like a desert tent.
3. Worlds Tallest Cliff:
All of the Trango Towers lie on a ridge, trending northwest-southeast, between the Trango Glacier on the west and the Dunge Glacier on the east. Great Trango itself is a large massif, with four identifiable summits: Main (6,286 m), South or Southwest (circa 6,250 m), East (6,231 m), and West (6,223 m). It is a complex combination of steep snow/ice gullies, steeper rock faces, and vertical to overhanging headwalls, topped by a snowy ridge system.
Just northwest of Great Trango is the Trango Tower (6,239 m), often called "Nameless Tower". This is a very large, pointed, rather symmetrical spire which juts 1000 m out of the ridgeline. North of Trango Tower is a smaller rock spire known as "Trango Monk." To the north of this feature, the ridge becomes less rocky and loses the large granite walls that distinguish the Trango Towers group and make them so attractive to climbers; however the summits do get higher. These summits are not usually considered part of the Trango Towers group, though they share the Trango name. Trango II (6,327 m) lies northwest of the Monk, and the highest summit on the ridge, Trango Ri (6,363 m), lies northwest of Trango II.
Just southeast of Great Trango (really a part of its southeast ridge) is the Trango Pulpit (6,050m), whose walls present similar climbing challenges to those of Great Trango itself. Further to the south is Trango Castle (5,753 m), the last large peak along the ridge before the Baltoro Glacier.
4. The Area of Greatest Linguistic Diversity:
Chitral or Chetrar (Urdu: چترال) (Persian: چیترال), translated as field in the native language Khowar, is the capital of the Chitral District, situated on the western bank of the Kunar River (also called Chitral River), in Pakistan. The town is at the foot of Tirich Mir, the highest peak of the Hindu Kush, 25,289 ft (7,708 m) high. It has a population of 20,000, while the district (of 14,833 km² or 5,727 sq mi), has a population of 300,000. The altitude of the valley is 3,700 ft (1,100 m).
The easiest access to Chitral is in the southwest along the Chitral or Kunar Valley towards Jalalabad. This route is open all year and provides direct access to Kabul. However the Pakistan–Afghanistan border (Durand Line) prevents this being used as an internal route to Peshawar and the south. The other routes are over mountain passes. To the south, the Lowari Pass (3,200 m or 10,499 ft) leads 365 km (227 mi) to Peshawar. In the north, the easiest route during summer runs over the Broghol Pass (3,798 m or 12,460 ft) to Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor, however during winter this route is usually closed. To the east, there is a 405 kilometres (252 mi) route to Gilgit over the 3,719 metres (12,201 ft) Shandur Pass. In the west, the 4,300 metres (14,100 ft) Dorah Pass provides an additional route to Afghanistan. The territory is home to rare falcons and the snow leopard, and is cut off by snow from the rest of the country for six months a year, a problem soon to be relieved by the completion of the Lowari Tunnel which will reduce transit time to Chitral as well as allow the district to be connected to the rest of the country even during the cold winter months.
5. A Language Isolate:
The Hunza valley, with its beauty and isolation has inspired many legends. The former princely state only really opened up to the rest of the world with the completion of Karakorum Highway in 1986.
Of the many unique features about the region, the presence of a language isolate is the most puzzling.
Burushaski is not related to any other language in the world and with Korean and Basque, is the worlds most vibrant language isolate.
6. The most Mysterious Tribe:
Although un-contacted tribes still exist in unexplored rainforest regions, Kalash are possibly the world�s most mysterious group. Surrounded for thousands of kilometers by Islamic strongholds, they are the only tribe which has kept its pre-Islamic belief religion. Their exotic European features have inspired many theories about possible origins but nothing substantial has yet been proven. Their long term existence is however in doubt due to increasing tourist exposure and Islamization.Kalash tribe polytheist native inhabitants that ruled the region for centuries later invaded by "Khow". The Kalasha reside in an enclave of three remote valleys west of Ayun, which is ten miles (16 km) down from Chitral town.
7. Worlds biggest refugee population:
The Afghans however had largely learned to live with internal tribal conflicts and prejudices but the situation changed dramatically with the 1979 Soviet invasion.
This coupled with non-existent border control resulted in more than 5 million refugees pouring into Pakistan.
Although recent years have been some of the most peaceful of the past decades, around 1.8 million refugees still reside in Pakistan and its still hosting the world�s biggest such population.
8. Worlds Largest Irrigation System:
Dependant exclusively on the Indus river and its tributaries, this network has also irrigated a population boom.
The system was originally built by the British and was then expanded in 1960s but now has become a rusty, inefficient old machine.
Pakistan's total land area is under cultivation and is watered by one of the largest irrigation systems in the world. Pakistan irrigates three times more acres than Russia. Agriculture accounts for about 21.2% of GDP and employs about 43% of the labor force. In Pakistan, the most agricultural province is Punjab where wheat and cotton are the most grown. Some people also have mango orchards but due to some problems like weather, they're not found in a big range.
9. Worlds Biggest Mountain Face:
It towers above the surrounding terrain like a brooding giant. Its south face, known as Rupal Face is the worlds biggest mountain face, rising unbroken for 4600 meters from its base.If one considers the peak to base distance, the north face of Nanga Parbat forms the worlds deepest gorge, plunging almost 7000 meters to the Indus River.
Nanga Parbat (literally, Naked Mountain from Urdu: ننگا پربت [nəŋɡaː pərbət̪]) is the ninth highest mountain on Earth. Located in Pakistan, Nanga Parbat is one of the eight-thousanders, with a summit elevation of 8,126 meters (26,660 ft). Nanga Parbat translates to "Naked Mountain" in English; parbat deriving from the Sanskrit word parvata (पर्वत) meaning "mountain, rock", and nanga from the Sanskrit nagna (नग्न) meaning "naked".[2] Known as the "Killer Mountain", Nanga Parbat was one of the deadliest of the eight-thousanders for climbers in the first half of the twentieth century; since that time it has been less so, though still an extremely serious climb. It is also an immense, dramatic peak that rises far above its surrounding terrain.
9. The Highest Paved Border Crossing:
The Karakoram Highway (KKH) is the highest paved international road in the world. [1] It connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, through the Khunjerab Pass, at an altitude of 4,693 m/15,397 ft as confirmed by both SRTM and multiple GPS readings.[2] It connects China's Xinjiang region with Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions and also serves as a popular tourist attraction. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions in which it was constructed, it is also referred to as the "Ninth Wonder of the World."[3]
The Karakorum Highway is known informally as the KKH, and — within Pakistan — officially as the N-35; within China, officially as China National Highway 314 (G314).
The highway cuts through the collision zone between the Eurasian and Indian plates, where China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan come within 250 km of each other. Owing largely to the extremely sensitive state of the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan, the Karakoram highway has strategic and military importance. Because of its dispute on the Kashmir region, India shows the Karakoram as an integral highway of India in Indian maps.
