Hidden Gem
An architectural wonder of the world, built like a honeycomb directly inside the mouth of a massive cliffside cave.
3 places to see, with what each one is and how long it takes.
Hidden Gem
An architectural wonder of the world, built like a honeycomb directly inside the mouth of a massive cliffside cave.
Viewpoint
A colossal, winding river of ice visible directly from the summit of Penzi La pass, backdropped by high jagged peaks.
Attraction
The largest Buddhist monastery complex in Zanskar, cascading beautifully down a steep rocky mountain slope above Padum.
Not in Zanskar Valley — these are in other towns across the state.
Accommodation Area
The primary rural settlement on the lake banks hosting most of the luxury tented camps and local homestays.
Attraction
An ancient multi-century old Buddhist monastery overlooking the lake, serving as the cultural heart for the local nomads.
Attraction
Nine storeys, built in the early 1600s on the model of the Potala and abandoned in the 1840s. The inside is largely empty and dark, so carry a torch. It is the roof and the view down over the old town that earn the ticket.
Attraction
A gallery below the monastery holding thangkas, ritual objects and gilded figures the gompa had in storage. Small, well lit, and easy to miss if you only look at the courtyard.
Attraction
The unique cold desert stretch where visitors can trek across white sand ridges on double-humped Bactrian camels.
Attraction
The boulder was uncovered by a road crew in 1965 and the shrine grew up around it. The army looks after it and serves langar to anyone passing, which on the Leh–Kargil road matters. Twenty-five kilometres out of Leh.
Viewpoint
A stretch of shore with a signboard, a scooter and a chair set out for photographs, because a film ended here in 2009. There is a charge. The lake is the same lake a kilometre in either direction, with nobody on it.
Viewpoint
Built in 1991 by a Japanese Buddhist order, reached by five hundred-odd steps or by road. Sunset is when everyone comes. At this altitude the stairs are harder than they look on your first day in Leh.
Viewpoint
The Zanskar arrives grey with silt and the Indus is greener, and below the join the two run side by side for a stretch without mixing. Sharpest in summer, when the Zanskar is in melt. It is also the put-in for most Indus rafting.
Experience
The expansive stone-flagged public courtyard where the grand annual mask dance rituals are performed by lamas.
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Viewpoint
A steep path up the ridge behind Korzok, and from the top you see the whole length of Tso Moriri at once, which you cannot from the shore. A hard twenty minutes at 4,500 metres.
Attraction
Founded in 1420 and the oldest gompa in Nubra. The thirty-two-metre Maitreya below it was finished in 2010 and faces down the valley towards Pakistan, which was the point of putting it there.
Market
Pedestrianised, so it is the one street in Leh you can walk without watching for traffic. The row of Ladakhi women selling vegetables off the pavement is the real market; the pashmina shops behind need bargaining, and not all of them are selling pashmina.
Hidden Gem
A beautiful, authentic Balti culture village opened to tourists recently, located just kilometers away from the Line of Control.