Baltit Fort

Baltit Fort (Urdu: قلعہ بلتت) is a palatial fort in the Hunza Valley, near the town of Karimabad, in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. It has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative list since 2004.

The conversation work carried out in the last decade of 20th-century indicated that the core structures, including the defensive stone and timber tower, date to the 8th century CE. The architecture of the fort reflects Tibetan influences. In the 16th-century, Ayasho II, the Mir of Hunza, married Shah Khatun, a princess from Skardu and the granddaughter of Ali Sher Khan Anchan. The father-in-law Abdal Khan sent artisans who rebuilt the fort. Abdal Khan also sent a cannon in dowry which bears date of 1539 CE.

The Mirs of Hunza abandoned the fort in 1945, and moved to a new palace down the hill. The fort started to decay which caused concern that it might possibly fall into ruin. Following a survey by the Royal Geographical Society of London a restoration programme was initiated and supported by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture Historic Cities Support Programme. The programme was completed in 1996 and the fort is now a museum run by the Baltit Heritage Trust.

Text adapted from “Baltit Fort” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Baltit Fort ranks #1,913 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #7 of the 22 mapped in Pakistan. Founded c. 750, it is older than 96% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 39 atlas entries founded in the 8th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,931 times in the last 60 days, more than 65% of the atlas. See how Pakistan compares in the castle statistics.

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