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K-2 MOUNTAINS

Pakistan has more glaciers than any other land outside the North and South Poles. Pakistan's glacial area covers some 13,680 sq.km which represents an average of 13 per cent of mountain regions of the upper Indus Basin. Pakistan's glaciers can rightly claim to possess the greatest mass and collection of glaciated space on the face of earth. In fact, in the lap of the Karakoram of Pakistan alone there are glaciers whose total length would add up to abvoe 6,160 sq. km. To put it more precisely, as high as 37 per cent of the Karakoram area is under its glaciers against Himalayas' 17 per cent and European Alps' 22 per cent. The Karakorams have one more claim to proclaim; its souther flank (east and west of the enormous Biafo glacier) has a concentration of glaciers which works out to 59 per cent of its area. 

There is a historical reason for the fact that we, and the world outside, are better acquainted with glaciers in the Nanga Parbat region. It is through this region, hazardous though it is, that man has trudged to and fro since the beginning of his civilized history of movement and migration. The Siachin glacier is 75 kms. The Hispar (53 kms) joins the Biafo at the Hispar La (5154.16 metres (16,910 ft) to form an ice corridor 116.87 kms (72 miles) long. The Batura, too is 58 kms in length. But, the most outstanding of these rivers of ice is the 62 kms Baltoro. This mighty glacier fed by some 30 tributaries constitues a surface of 1291.39 sq. kms. Western Low Mountains Region.

These western low mountains spread from the Swat and Chitral hills in a north-south direction (along which alexander the Great led his army in 327 B.C) and cover a large portion of the North-West Frontier Province. North of the river Kabul their altitude ranges from 5,000 to 6,000 ft. in Mohamand and Malakand hills. The aspect of these hills is exceedingly dreary and the eye is everywhere met by the dry rivers between long rows of rocky hills and crags, scantily covered with coarse grass, scrub wood and dwarf palm. South of the river Kabul spreads the Koh-e-Sofed Range with a general height of 10,000 ft. Its highest peak, Skaram, being 15,620 ft. South of Koh-e-Sofed are the Kohat and Waziristan hills (5,000 ft) which are traversed by the Kurram and Tochi rivers, and are bounded on south by Gomal River. 

The whole area is a tangle of arid hills composed of limestone and sandstone. South of the Gomal River, the Sulaiman Mountains run for a distance of about 483 kilomaters in a north-south direction, Takht-e-Sulaiman (11,295 ft.) being its highest peak. At the southern end lie the low Marri and Bugti hills. The area shows an extraordinary landscape of innumerable scarps, small plateaus and steep craggy out-crops with terraced slopes and patches of alluvial basins which afford little cultivation. 

Kirthar Range South of the Sulaiman Mountains is the Kirthar Range which forms a boundary between the Sindh plain and the Balochistan plateau. It consists of a series of ascending ridges running generally north to south with broad flat valleys in-between. The highgest peak named Kutte ji Kabar (dog's grace is 6,878 ft. above sea level. Bleak, rugged and barren as these hills are, they afford some pasturage for flocks of sheep and goats. The valleys are green with grass and admit cultivation up to a highest of 4,000 ft. Historical Passes The western mountains have a number of passes, which are of special geographical and historical interest. For centuries, they have been watching numerous kings, generals and preachers passing through them and the events that followed brought about momentous changes in the annals of mankind.