Leh
Leh was the capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh, now the
Leh district in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir. Leh district, is the second largest district in the country, after Kutch,
Gujarat. The town is still dominated by the now ruined Leh Palace, former mansion
of the royal family of Ladakh, built in the same style and about the same time
as the Potala Palace.(The Potala Palace was the chief residence of the Dalai
Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, India, during the 1959
Tibetan uprising.) Leh is at an altitude of 3524 metres, and
connects via National Highway 1D to Srinagar in the southwest and to Manali in
the south via Leh-Manali Highway
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Nubra Valley
Nubra is a tri-armed valley
located to the north east of Ladakh valley. Diskit the capital of Nubra is about
150 km north from Leh town, the capital of Ladakh district, India. Local
scholars say that its original name was Ldumra (the valley of flowers). The
Shyok River meets the Nubra or Siachan River to form a large valley that
separates the Ladakh and Karakoram Ranges. The Shyok river is a tributary of
the Indus river. The average altitude of the valley is about 3048 metres above the sea level. The common way to access this valley is to
travel over the Khardung La pass from Leh town. Non-locals require an Inner
Line Permit to enter Nubra.
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Pangong Lake
Pangong Tso, also referred to as Pangong Lake, is
an endorheic lake in the Himalayas situated at a height of about 4,350 m. It is 134 km long and extends from India to Tibet. Approximately
60% of the length of the lake lies in Tibet. The lake is 5 km wide at
its broadest point. All together it covers 604 km. During winter the lake
freezes completely, despite being saline water. It is not part of Indus river
basin area and geographically a separate land locked river basin.The lake is in the
process of being identified under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of
international importance. This will be the first trans-boundary wetland in
South Asia under the convention.
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