Chitral valley is a veritable piece of heaven on earth, best known for its picturesque beauty and astounding culture. The beautiful river and green mountains tell the story of another world. It is one of the major tourist destinations in Pakistan where you can experience the splendid beauty of nature.
The valley is situated at an elevation of 1494 meters from the sea, surrounded by some of the tallest mountains in the world. It has 40 peaks above 6,000 m; the highest peak is Tirich Mir which is more than 25000 feet high. Whether it is winter or summer, the mountain is covered with snow, which offers a beautiful view from afar and people specially come for photography.
There are 17 different languages spoken and many different nationalities are inhabited here. The mountains, sceneries, fruit-laden trees, people, and the weather, everything in Chitral is just amazing.
This magnetic place is waiting for you, go and see the amazing beauty which you can enjoy in your memories for years to come.
Some special features of Chitral
Chitral offers everything that is special but some features that makes Chitral different from other parts of the country are as follows.
When the name Chitral is mentioned, Kalash culture will also be mentioned. The culture of Kalash is very beautiful and unique, women dressed up in colourful traditional dresses and men with feather caps look very attractive. People come here to see this ancient culture.
Polo is Chitral’s favourite sport. Shandur Polo festival is held from 7 to 9 of July of every year in which different teams participate and this event is so famous in tourists. This is different from polo played in the rest of the world, mostly known as freestyle polo. It is an ancient sport and is still played today in the same style. Shandur Pass (3,700 m) is home to the world’s highest Polo Ground, often known as the “Roof of the World” due to its enormous lush green plateau.
Chitral Gol National Park is a place like Pakistan’s hidden treasure, spread over 7750 hectares. The national park is famous for its colorful skies, steep slopes, and especially a unique animal Markhor. Markhor is the identity of Chitral. It is known worldwide for its unique and curvy horns. Markhor is the national animal of Pakistan and you have to take a License to hunt it down. Its meat is so tasty.
The royal bazaar is the most famous here. You can buy traditional dresses, caps, handicrafts, precious stones and many other different things.
Madaklash is a beautiful village in Chitral. Due to its height, this village is a great place for skiing. Locals make their skis from wood and these guys are very good at skiing.
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Weather of Chitral
The valley becomes more romantic and stunning in summer when the snow melts, the river flows very beautifully, and the landscape turns lush green. In the winter season, the whole valley is covered with snow, there is heavy snowfall which is its biggest attraction. People specially come to see snowfall and for skinning. Chitral Temperature varies in between -1 to 32 Centigrade, in Summer it becomes pleasant and in cold it drops to 0 and heavy snowfalls occurred.
Location of Chitral
Chitral is the capital of the Chitral district and it is the largest district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with more than 15000 square kilometers. Chitral has about 350 KM distance from Peshawar capital of KP and 390 KM from Islamabad. Chitral is located in the North West of Pakistan at the Hindukush range of Mountains.
It is connected to the rest of Pakistan by the lawari pass from Dir and shandur top from Gilgit Baltistan. The road to Lawari Pass become inaccessible in cold weather and due to heavy snowfall, so the Government has built a tunnel in the middle of the Hindu Kush Mountains, which is 10 km long so that the road to Chitral remains open all year.
Everything here is vibrant and colorful. Your travel would be full of adventure and the scenery got better and better and you can never get bored.
History of Chitral
It’s a brief overview of the history of Chitral. The Kalash is the earliest dynasty ruled here for about 200 years, from 1000 AD to 1200 AD. After them Somaleki era began, which ruled for about 120 years. Then came Raees who ruled for 275 years and in his time this area was called Chitral. The last dynasty, known as the Mehtars of Chitral and historically called the Katur dynasty, ruled for about 370 years, from 1595 to 1969.
After the partition of the British colony of India in 1947, the huge states were given the option to merge with one of the two states or to either remain independent. In 1969, Chitral was completely integrated to Pakistan as an administrative district. Click to read about Swat Valley and Lake Saif ul Malook other stunning places to visit in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
