ABSTRACT
From Leh, the caravans would strike north over the next mountain range to the Shyok River Valley, then north again around the base of the Siachen Glacier to the Karakoram Pass that debouches onto the plains of Turkestan. From there, they would follow the ancient Silk Road to the legendary oasis trading cities of the oases Yarkand and Kashgar. Two vast glaciers, Baltoro and Siachen, the highest and largest outside of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, extend along the northern flank of Baltistan. These huge seas of ice and deep, lethal crevasses rise to altitudes of over 22,965 feet (7,000 m). Siachen, which means “wild rose” in the Balti language, is the higher of the two. The Karachi Agreement, signed by Pakistan and India at the end of their 1947 war, demarcated the ceasefire line up to a point on the Shyok River near the southern end of the Siachen Glacier.
