Mintaka and Kilik Pass Trek

Misgar village is set in a beautiful mountain environment of verdant, well-tended fields and clear streams irrigating the terraces and flower-covered gardens. The treks along the ancient trading routes, leading north to the Kilik and Mintaka Passes are equally attractive and could be rated as some of the easiest trekking in northern Pakistan.
For more than 1000 years, Kilik and Mintaka were the Silk Routes;s primary passes between China and Hunza and today these broad valleys and extensive alpine meadows, once closed to foreigners, are again accessible. Kilik and Mintaka, two historic passes on Pakistan’s border with China, have been off limits to foreigners since 1947. The 1m-3m wide tails to these gentle passes are easy to follow, springs and trees are abundant, and camp sites are grassy, making this one of northern Pakistan’s easiest treks.
Amongst the earliest travelers along the Silk Route were the pilgrims. A succession of Chinese monks, including Fah Hian, Sung-
Yun and others made their way over the
Wakhan passes to ancient Ghandhara
(Swat), to receive holy Buddhist scriptures
and eventually bring them back to China and Tibet. Whether those early pilgrims passed through Misgar is not clear; clear, however, is that a series of petroglyphs near Kilik, depicting horse riders, hunters, ibex and Buddhist swastikas, show evidence for the long and diverse human usage of this area.
On the butte above Murkushi, a whole
graveyard of old Kyrgyz tombs can be visited and stands as yet another reminder of Misgar’s long and fascinating past