Khardung La

Khardung La (Tibetan: མཁར་གདོང་ལ་, Wylie: mkhar gdong la, THL: khar dong la) or Khardung Pass (elevation 5,359 m (17,582 ft)), 40 km (25 mi) north of Leh city, is a mountain pass in the Leh district of the union territory of Ladakh in India. The pass is on the Ladakh Range and connects the Indus river valley and the Shyok river valley. A strategically important motorable road from Leh in the south, built in 1976 by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), connects to the Nubra Valley in north and also to the Siachen Glacier. The road is one of the world's highest motorable roads. == History == Khardong La is historically important as it lies on the major caravan route from Leh to Kashgar in Central Asia. About 10,000 horses and camels used to take the route annually, and a small population of Bactrian camels can still be seen at Hunder, in the area north of the pass. During World War II there was an attempt to transfer war material to China through this route. In the early 1950s, William O. Douglas described "the trail, after crossing the Indus, divides, one fork going south along the river's edge to Spitok, Khalatse and Khargil, the other turning north to Leh, the Khardong Pass (...), and Yarkand, an ancient trading center of Sinkiang. ... Leh is on a historic caravan route that leads not only to Yarkand in Sinkiang but to Lhasa in Tibet.