The Karakoram Highway (Urdu: شاہراہ قراقرم, romanized: śāhirāh qarāquram; known by its initials KKH, also known as N-35 or National Highway 35 (Urdu: قومی شاہراہ ۳۵) or the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway) is a 1,300 km (810 mi) national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab province of Pakistan to the Khunjerab Pass in Gilgit-Baltistan, where it crosses into China and becomes China National Highway 314. The highway connects the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa plus Gilgit-Baltistan with China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The highway is a popular tourist att...Read more

The Karakoram Highway (Urdu: شاہراہ قراقرم, romanized: śāhirāh qarāquram; known by its initials KKH, also known as N-35 or National Highway 35 (Urdu: قومی شاہراہ ۳۵) or the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway) is a 1,300 km (810 mi) national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab province of Pakistan to the Khunjerab Pass in Gilgit-Baltistan, where it crosses into China and becomes China National Highway 314. The highway connects the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa plus Gilgit-Baltistan with China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The highway is a popular tourist attraction and is one of the highest paved roads in the world, passing through the Karakoram mountain range, at 36°51′00″N 75°25′40″E at maximum elevation of 4,714 m (15,466 ft) near Khunjerab Pass. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions under which it was constructed, it is often referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World. The highway is also a part of the Asian Highway AH4.

 Aerial view of Karakoram highway (Credit: hunzographer)

The Karakoram Highway, also known as the Friendship Highway in China, was built by the governments of Pakistan and China. It was started in 1962 and was completed and opened to the public in 1978. Pakistan initially favored routing through Mintaka Pass. In 1966, China, citing the fact that Mintaka would be more susceptible to air strikes, recommended the steeper Khunjerab Pass instead.[1] About 810 Pakistanis and about 200 Chinese workers died,[2] mostly in landslides and falls, while building the highway. Over 140 Chinese workers who died during the construction are buried in the Chinese cemetery in Gilgit.[3] The route of the KKH traces one of the many paths of the ancient Silk Road.

On the Pakistani side, the road was constructed by FWO (Frontier Works Organisation), employing the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers. The Engineer-in-Chief's Branch of the Pakistani Army completed a project documenting the history of the highway. The book History of Karakoram Highway was written by Brigadier (Retired) Muhammad Mumtaz Khalid in two volumes. In the first volume, the author discusses the land and the people, the pre-historic communication system in the Northern Areas, the need for an all-weather road link with Gilgit, and the construction of Indus Valley Road. The second volume records events leading to the conversion of the Indus Valley Road to the Karakoram Highway, the difficulties in its construction, and the role of the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers and their Chinese counterparts in its construction.[4]

^ 刘欣 (3 May 2013). "重寻玄奘之路" [Rediscover the path taken by Xuanzang] (in Chinese). 东方早报. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021. Retrieved 2 February 2017. 1966年,时任新疆军区副司令员的张希钦在主持修筑中巴公路时,为避敌国空袭,放弃了巴方主张的走宽阔的明铁盖达坂的方案,而取道地势高峻的红其拉甫山口。 [In 1966, when Zhang Xiqin, then deputy commander of the Xinjiang Military Region, was presiding over the construction of the China-Pakistan Highway, in order to avoid enemy air attacks, he gave up the plan advocated by Pakistan to take the wide Mingtie Gaida Ban, and instead took the high-terrain Khunjela. Fushankou.] ^ 25th Anniversary of the Karakoram Highway (1978–2003) Archived 28 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine". Pakistan Post Office, 16 May 2006. Retrieved on 10 July 2006. ^ Li, Keqiang (23 May 2013). Making New Progress in Growing China-Pakistan All-Weather Friendship (Speech). fmprc.gov.cn. Archived from the original on 3 February 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2017. Near the city of Gilgit, there is a Chinese cemetery where over 140 Chinese workers who lost their lives in the construction of the Pakistani section of the Karakorum Highway (KKH) are buried. ^ Muhammad Mumtaz Khalid (13 June 2013). "History of KKH". www.historyofkkh.info. Retrieved 18 December 2023 – via web.archive.org.
Photographies by:
Shahbazaslam1 - CC BY-SA 4.0
Jialiang Gao, www.peace-on-earth.org - CC BY-SA 3.0
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