Skardu is a city in Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, and serves as the capital of Skardu District. Skardu is located in the 10 kilometres wide by 40 kilometres long Skardu Valley, at the confluence of the Indus and Shigar Riversat an altitude of nearly 2,500 metres. The city is an important gateway to the eight-thousanders of the nearby Karakoram Mountain range. The town is located on the Indus river, which separates the Karakoram Range from the Himalayas.
MODERN SKARDU CITY..
INDUS RIVER PASSING THROUGH SKARDU..
KATPANA LAKE SKARDU..
HISTORY OF SKARDU CITY DURING 9TH TO 10TH CE..
The Skardu region was part of the cultural sphere of Buddhist Tibet since the founding of the Tibetan Empire under Songsten Gampo in the mid 7th-century CE. Tibetan tantric scriptures were found all over Baltistan until about the 9th century. Given the region’s close proximity to Central Asia, Skardu remained in contact with tribes near Kashgar, in what is now China's westernmost province of Xinjiang.
Following the dissolution of Tibetan suzerainty over Baltistan around the 9th-10th century CE, Baltistan came under control of the local Maqpon Dynasty, a dynasty of Turkic extraction, which according to local tradition, is said to have been founded after a migrant from Kashmir named Ibrahim Shah married a local princess.
OLD BUDDHA ROCKS FOUND IN SKARDU..
