20/10/2019
Tramposaurus Treks
Thalpan Petroglyphs
Rock Carvings & Inscriptions
Just outside of Chilas
Gilgit-Baltistan, Northern Areas, Pakistan
If you are traveling to the tourist areas of Northern Pakistan by road from Islamabad, chances are you will pass by the town of Chilas. Just outside the town, right on the side of the highway, there is something that is quite special and amazing.
Throughout the country of Pakistan, it is easy to find ancient carvings on rocks. These carvings are hundreds if not thousands of years old, and when you are new in the country and you ‘discover’ your first one, the thrill of finding an ancient relic can make you feel a bit like Indiana Jones. However, as you keep looking, you will find these ancient petroglyphs absolutely everywhere, and soon the thrill of discovery begins to diminish. These rock carvings are primarily depicting the large Ibex mountain goats of this region with massive curved horns, and these carvings are absolutely everywhere.
However, at this special location just outside of Chilas is a vast art gallery of ancient art that includes engravings of Ibex, but also Buddhist images of stupas, meditating Buddhas, various motifs related to Shiva, Vishnu or Zoroastrian influences and inscriptions in various languages. This route along the Indus River was part of the Silk Road ‘highway’ for thousands of years. It was used by merchant caravans, military expeditions, and explorers who all left their marks on these rocks. Over thousands of years, religions, ideas, knowledge, and cultural exchanges spread along this ‘highway’ and these rocks must have been a popular place to stop and rest.
You can see many of the stone carvings from the road, but as you walk into the mountains, if you look hard, you keep finding more and more. For a while, I had an eager local child that ran through the rocks yelling at me and pointing to where I could find more. But then he started making fun of me because every time I found a new, spectacular carving, I would gasp, say ‘Oh my God’ and ‘WOW’… and he eventually walked away mocking me. I got this on film and it still makes me laugh.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of these petroglyphs in this area and the earliest ones date back to 600 BC, so some of them are nearly 2700 years old. You would think that this would be an enormous tourist attraction and that the area would be locally and internationally protected as a world heritage site. But there is no protection. Some of the rocks have actually had new graffiti painted on them. But this did not seem like a malicious effort to destroy priceless relics, as locally, the priceless carvings are just thought of as slightly older graffiti and nothing special.
This was a completely unexpected and absolutely thrilling surprise which came right at the end of my month-long trip through Pakistan. There are absolutely no tourists in this area, so you will have this place all to yourself, to wander through the rocks and discover these ancient masterpieces on your own.
