The Chilas petroglyphs
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The Chilas petroglyphs |
| The Chilas petroglyphs |
| Century after century,
travelers along the Silk Road (as well as, more recently, the Chinese workers on the KKH) left
graffiti on stones along the road. Names, pictures and prayers for safe
passage, merit in the afterlife or good luck on the next hunting trip. Chilas, on the KKH, south of Gilgit is one of the places where many
inscriptions have been found, some say as many as 30,000. The oldest
inscriptions date from the 1st century AD. Our Lonely
Planet guidebook only roughly indicated where the area with inscriptions
was located : the other side of a "jeep" bridge across the Indus
river... As we are traveling without guide, we found ourselves having to
look for the petroglyphs and, for one moment, felt like real explorers
!
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The "Jeep" bridge that squeaked under the weight of our car. We were glad it was over.
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Common images are the long-horned ibex (left) symbol of fertility and abundance and hunting scenes (right).
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Famous explorer Kathleen, Chilas, Pakistan
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We are doing well !
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| Sost to Lahore | Back to Trip page | Km 120,000 |
