Latest Jobs

The Karakoram Highway: The Story of the Road Built Through the Mountains

/ Interesting Stories, Stories

This is a true story based on historical records. Figures are approximate and drawn from published accounts.

High in the mountains of northern Pakistan, a road winds through narrow gorges, past glaciers and beneath some of the tallest peaks on Earth. It climbs all the way to the border with China. This is the Karakoram Highway, often called the KKH. Many people describe it as one of the most remarkable roads ever built, and its story is one of courage, hard work and sacrifice.

A road through the “roof of the world”

The Karakoram, Himalaya and Hindu Kush ranges meet in northern Pakistan. For centuries, traders and travellers crossed these mountains on narrow paths, part of the ancient routes often grouped under the name of the Silk Road. The journeys were slow and dangerous, and in winter many passes were closed.

Pakistan and China decided to build a modern road that could carry vehicles through this terrain. It was an enormous challenge: steep cliffs, loose rock, fast rivers, earthquakes and heavy snow.

Building the impossible

Work on the highway began in the 1960s and continued for many years. On the Pakistani side, the road was built by the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), with engineers and soldiers of the Pakistan Army, alongside thousands of Chinese workers and engineers.

Much of the work had to be done where no machine could easily reach. Workers cut ledges into sheer rock faces, blasted tunnels and paths through mountainsides and built bridges across roaring rivers. Supplies had to be carried in over difficult tracks. At high altitude, the thin air made every task harder, and winters brought freezing temperatures.

The highway was completed in 1979 and opened to the public in 1986.

The price of the road

The Karakoram Highway came at a heavy cost. Published accounts estimate that around 800 Pakistani and about 200 Chinese workers lost their lives during construction, mostly in landslides and falls. There is a saying that each kilometre of the road carries the memory of someone who gave their life to build it.

More than a hundred Chinese workers who died are buried in a cemetery in Gilgit, which remains a place of remembrance.

The road today

The highway runs for roughly 1,300 kilometres from Hasan Abdal in Punjab, through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, to the Khunjerab Pass on the China border, and continues into China. Its highest point, near Khunjerab, is more than 4,700 metres above sea level, making it one of the highest paved international roads in the world.

The road has faced many challenges since it opened. In January 2010, a massive landslide at Attabad in Hunza blocked the Hunza River and created a lake that submerged part of the highway. A new section with tunnels and bridges was later built to bypass the lake, and the lake itself has become a well-known tourist spot.

Today, the highway connects remote valleys with the rest of Pakistan, supports trade with China and brings tourists to places such as Hunza and Khunjerab.

Lessons from the Karakoram Highway

  • Great things take patience. The road took many years of steady effort, not one sudden breakthrough.
  • Cooperation achieves more. Two countries and thousands of people had to work together.
  • Remember those who built what we use. Every road, bridge and building carries the work, and sometimes the sacrifice, of others.

Quick facts

  • Route: Hasan Abdal to the Khunjerab Pass, continuing into China
  • Length: about 1,300 km in total
  • Completed: 1979; opened to the public in 1986
  • Highest point: over 4,700 metres near the Khunjerab Pass
  • Built by: Pakistan’s Frontier Works Organisation with Chinese engineers and workers

More true stories: how penicillin was discovered. For a lesson in perseverance, read The Boy Who Counted the Stairs.

More in Stories

Scroll to Top