---
type: Place
title: Karakoram Highway
description: The road between Islamabad and the Chinese border — twelve to fifteen hours of cliff edge, rockfall and armed escorts, and the only practical way into northern Pakistan.
tags: [karakoram-highway, pakistan, hunza-valley, roads, safety, china, landslides]
coordinates: {lat: 34.6782, lng: 73.0111}
timestamp: 2026-08-06T12:00:00Z
---

# Karakoram Highway

The road running from [Islamabad](/places/islamabad.md) up through the mountains
to [Hunza Valley](/places/hunza-valley.md) and on to the Chinese border at
[Khunjerab Pass](/places/khunjerab-pass.md). Harry travels its full length twice
— north in January 2022 and south again eleven days later — and it is the
subject of two videos in its own right rather than just the way between places.

His framing for it is **the second deadliest road in the world**; that is the
video's claim rather than anything a source in it states, and is recorded here as
his *(from video – unverified)*. What the footage actually shows is a road whose
danger is specific and mundane: rock coming down onto it.

## What the drive is like

- **Twelve hours quoted, in both directions.** Northbound it took fifteen; the
  extra three hours were security stops. Southbound the estimate held.
- **The distance is short and the road is not.** As the crow flies it is
  nothing; the route winds the whole way through valleys. There are flights from
  Islamabad, Harry is told, but very few.
- **Sheer cliff edges with a steep drop**, and long stretches with no barrier.
- **The surface changes character.** Modern tarmac and tunnels on the lower
  section — including a Chinese-built stretch with something like seven minutes
  of tunnel in it — and, higher up, ice, frozen meltwater above the carriageway,
  and loose rock lying across it.
- **Vehicles get swapped for the terrain.** The 4x4 that does the rough sections
  is exchanged for an ordinary car once the route is highway again.
- Almost no light pollution, so the night driving comes with stars.

## Rockfall, blasting and closures

This is the actual hazard, and it is managed rather than avoided:

- **The road is deliberately blasted** to bring loose rock down in controlled
  falls. Harry reaches one closure minutes before it starts and is told the wait
  would otherwise have been **two hours minimum**.
- **Landslides close it without warning too.** A second stop on the same day cost
  five minutes; he had expected hours.
- Fresh slides and stretches under fallen stone are visible throughout. Harry's
  repeated conclusion is that **a driver who knows which sections are bad is
  worth paying for**, which is the most concrete argument for a guide in the
  whole cluster.

## The escorts

**Foreigners on the lower half of the route are escorted by armed police**,
handed over district by district — 19 escorts and 21 checkpoints on Harry's
northbound run. The reason is a Chinese-built hydropower dam on the road and an
incident involving a worker there; the full account is on
[Hunza Valley](/places/hunza-valley.md). The escorts are the difference between
the twelve-hour estimate and the fifteen-hour reality, and Harry hopes aloud on
the way south that they won't recur.

## What is on it

- **Besham**, in the lower valley, sheltered by mountains — a chai stop.
- **A viewpoint at Rakaposhi**, with the second-longest zipline in Pakistan and
  a village that is very busy in summer.
- **The Passu cones** and a glacier above them, near the top.
- **Hot springs** at the roadside, used for joint pain — twenty minutes in the
  water, on an account Harry is careful to attribute to other people.
- **A point where three mountain ranges meet**, pointed out by the guides.
- Roadside stops that function as service stations: small shops, food and chai.
- Convoys of decorated timber trucks on the lower section.

## Harry's tips

- **Take a guide or a driver who runs the route regularly** — for the rockfall
  sections, and for getting through the checkpoints at all.
- Budget more time than the estimate, and expect closures you cannot plan for.
- **His guide's advice on timing**: spring or autumn beats both summer and
  winter — decent weather and no crowds. See
  [travel in the off season](/tips/travel-in-the-off-season.md).
- Expect to be uncomfortable. Harry's back is in real pain by the end of the
  southbound run and he says so.

## Source

- [Road Trip to HUNZA VALLEY🇵🇰 (Part 1)](/videos/gqKoCynRol8.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqKoCynRol8
- [We Had 19 Police Escorts - Hunza Road Trip🇵🇰 (Part 2)](/videos/zqErq9nNY7w.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqErq9nNY7w
- [Travelling on the 2nd Most Deadly Road in the World](/videos/RUN6g8G3zII.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUN6g8G3zII
- [-20 Degrees at the China - Pakistan Border 🇵🇰](/videos/yElvKLDSMHI.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yElvKLDSMHI