Khunjerab Pass

The Khunjerab is the top of the Karakoram Highway at four thousand six hundred and ninety-three metres, and it is the highest paved border crossing in the world. Pakistan meets China on a windswept saddle with a stone arch, a pair of border posts and nothing else, four hours up the valley from Hunza. Khunjerab National Park covers the approach and holds Marco Polo sheep, ibex and a thin population of snow leopards. Yaks graze the flats below the pass. The road is open from roughly May to the end of October and the border keeps its own shorter hours. The name is read locally as the valley of blood.