Gilgit sits in the place where three of the world's greatest mountain systems come together: the Karakoram, the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush. The town lies at roughly fifteen hundred metres in a broad, dry valley at the meeting of the Gilgit and Hunza rivers, with bare brown ridges close on every side, and on a clear day the snow of high peaks hangs over the roofs. Nanga Parbat, the ninth-highest mountain on earth, lies not far south, and from the Hunza side the huge ridge of Rakaposhi appears on the horizon.
This was a key stop on the Silk Road branch that crossed the mountains between China, Kashmir and Central Asia, and the valley has been a Buddhist centre, a Hindu kingdom and a Muslim principality in turn. A Buddha carved into a rock face at Kargah, a few kilometres from town, dates to around the seventh century. In 1931 some of the oldest surviving manuscripts in the world were found near here, Buddhist texts written on birch bark and later known as the Gilgit manuscripts. In more recent times, the town was the capital of a frontier agency of the British Raj, and polo, the local passion, is still played with abandon in the high valleys.
Today Gilgit is the main hub of Gilgit-Baltistan, with a bustling bazaar, a few simple hotels, and the usual loud, cheerful traffic of a Pakistani town. For a rider, it is the main supply base for the Karakoram Highway, which was built by Pakistani and Chinese engineers from the late 1950s to 1978, at the cost of hundreds of workers' lives, and which snakes north along the Hunza valley toward Khunjerab. Here you can find fuel, spares, banks, and good food, from fresh apricots in summer to stews of lamb and local bread, with apricot oil and dried fruit sold in the shops.
The road north is paved but battered by rockfall, landslides and the movement of the mountains themselves, and sections can be closed after rain or snow. Expect sharp bends, dust, trucks and cliff edges. The best months are May to October, when the passes are open and the days warm, but nights can be cold. Security and road conditions can change, so check locally and ask about permits and any restrictions before setting out. Fill up and stock water here, because the next big town lies a good distance away.