Kashmir: Poetry of Nature
Set like a jewelled crown on the map of India, Kashmir is a many-faceted diamond, changing its character with the seasons always extravagantly beautiful. Three Himalayan ranges - Karakoram, Zanskarand Pir Panjal - snow-capped, majestic, frame the landscape from northwest to northeast. They are the birthplace of great rivers which flow down into the valleys below, forested with wild orchards and lily laden lakes.
It is not enough to say that Kashmir is beautiful. Kashmir has captured within its territories the quintessence of all the elements that poetry demands of nature. Awesome grandeur, serenity, a wild profusion of color. The Mughals, who celebrated beauty, planted their symmetrical gardens and added a further dimension to the valleys of Kashmir. They also left behind a heritage of exquisite artisanship among the people, making the handicrafts of the land prized gifts the world over.
Major Ethnic Groups
The various ethnic groups of the Jammu and Kashmir State though intermingled have their areas of high concentration. For example, Kashmiris are mainly concentrated in the Valley bottom;
Srinagar
Srinagar is at once a collection of images: a son et lumiere that tells the story of the love of the Mughal emperors for this paradise vale; deep green rice fields and river bridges, of gardens in bloom and lakes rimmed by houseboats;
Maps
Maps of various regions in Jammu and Kashmir.
Wadi Ki Pahari Bastiyaan
This district, reduced in territory, came into existence after 1947. Those areas of Neelam Valley and Tehsil Karnah, whose streams and nullahs carry waters into Neelam (Kishan Ganga) river and prior to 1947
Karnah Valley
On 75 kms long difficult mountain range to the north-east of Kupwara at a height of 10 thousand feet is situated Nastachhin Pass generally known to the locals as Sadhna Gali.
Elephant fossils found in Pampore
SRINAGAR, Sep 6: The Department of Geology and Geophysics, Kashmir University, on August 31, during preliminary investigations came across an elephant fossil.
Kargil
The itinerary of the average tourist to Ladakh usually begins by taking a tour of Leh, the capital and principal township of Ladakh.
Drass
A small township 60 km short of Kargil on the Srinagar - Leh highway, Drass (3230m) is reputed to be the second coldest inhabited place in the world.
Suru Valley
This is a fertile valley of immense beauty. Its composite population of 25,000 of Tibeto-Dard descent are Muslims who converted their Buddhist faith around the 16th century.
Zanskar
About 35 km south-east of Rangdum, just across the Penzi la (4390m) watershed, begins the most ravishing of all the trans-Himalayan valleys.