07/12/2021
Kargil is one of the two districts of and a major town of the Union Territory of Ladakh in India, located on Leh-Srinagar highway, 220 km from Leh and 210 km from Srinagar.
Kargil is the second largest town of Ladakh after Leh. Ladakh has two districts — one is Leh and another is Kargil. The main town of Kargil is about 695 km from Manali and 1,050 km from Delhi (via Srinagar) and it is about 1,265 km from Delhi via Manali. The average elevation of Kargil is about 8,700 ft from sea level. The town is settled by the bank of the Suru river, a tributary of Indus.
In the north of the Kargil town is Indo-Pak LOC. Kargil experiences extreme winter cold with temperature sometimes dipping below minus 40 degrees Celsius. Drass is 58km west of Kargil. Kargil is an important halt point between the Srinagar-Leh highway. A large number of tourists visit Kargil to see how and where the India Pakistan war of 1999 was fought. The Kargil War Memorial is situated in Dras.
Kargil town is the junction of Kargil-Srinagar, Kargil-Leh, Kargil-Zanskar and Kargil-Batalik roads. Kargil is the major midway halt for tourists travelling on Srinagar-Leh route.
Kargil was constituted of several small kingdoms including Suru Valley, Chktan, Phokhar and Sot. All these small kingdoms, according to historians, used to fight over small issues. The exiled prince Gasho Thatha Khan is said to be the first ruler who united all the kingdoms in 9th century. Another ruler of Kargil, which was then known as Purig, extended the kingdom and included Zanskar, Pashkum and Sodh to the present-day Kargil. Boti Khan, Abdal Khan, Tsering Malik, Amrood Choo, Thi Sultan and Kunchok Sherab also remained rulers of Kargil
