Ladakh Places of Interest

Leh

Leh only became regional capital in the seventeenth century, when Sengge Namgyal shifted his court here from Shey, 15 km southeast to be closer to the head of the Khardung La - Karakoram corridor into China.  

Kargil

Kargil capital of the area dubbed "Little Baltistan" which rised in aclutter of corrugated inron rooftops from the confluence of the Suru and Drass rivers .

Thak Thok

Thak Thok gompa shelters a cave in which the apostle Padmasambhava is said to have meditated during his epic eight-century journey to Tibet.

Dhahanu

Dhahanu is situated to the south west of Leh, around 163 Kms. passing through the beautiful villages of Kaltsey, Domkhar, Skurbuchan

Padum

Padum is 240 km to the south of Kargil, comes as a bit of an anticlimax.

Stongdey

The monastery of Stongdey lies 18 kms. To the north of Padum, on the road leading to Zangla. 

Matho

Matho is 27km south of Leh, straddles a spur at the mouth of an idyllic side-valley that runs deep into the heart of the Stok-Kangri massif.

Zanskar

Walled in by the Great Himalayan Divide, Zanskar, literally " Land of White Copper" has for decades exrted the allure of Shangri La on visitours to Ladakh.

Zangla

Zangla is the nodal point on the popular Padum Strongdey Zangla Karsha Padum round trip, which covers most of the cultural sites of Zanskar.

Zongkhul

Zongkhul falls on the Padum-Kishtwar trekking trail, just before the ascent of Omasi-la Pass begins

Rangdum

Rangdum is an elliptical expanded plateau surrounded by colourful hills on the one side and glacier encrusted rocky mountains on the other.

Tikse

Ladakh’s most photographed and architecturally impressive gompa is at TIKSE, 19km southeast of Leh.foundedin the fifteenth century, its whitewashed chortens and cubic monks’ quarters rise in ranks up the sides of a craggy bluff, crowned by an imposing ochre- and red-painted temple complex whose gleaming golden finials are visible for miles in every direction.

Valley of Ladakh

The Suru Valley

Diving two of the world's most formidable mountain ranges, the Suru Valley winds south from Kargil to the desolate Pensi La the main entry point for Zanskar. 

North of Leh : Nubra Valley

Until 1994, the lands north of Leh were off limits to tourists and had been unexplored by outsiders since the nineteenth century.

Drass Valley

Drass (3230 m), 60 km west of Kargil on the road to Srinagar, is a small township lying in the centre of the valley of the same name . 

Shyok Valley

The Shyok River receives the waters of the Nubra and Changchenmo rivers. It rises from the Khumdang glacier, which can be approached from Shyok. 

Salt Valley

The Salt Lake Valley is one of the widest open areas in Rupshu. It can be approached from Leh across the Tanglang La pass.

Lake of Ladakh

Pangong Tso

Pangong Tso, 15km to the southeast of Leh, is one of the largest saltwater lakes in Asia, a long narrow strip of water stretching from Ladakh east into Tibet.

Tso Moriri

Tso Moriri or "Mountain Lake" is Famous for the large herds of king, or wild ass, which graze on its shores, the lake of Tso Moriri, 210km southeast of Leh, lies in the sparsely populated region of Rupshu.