Ladakh is a land like no other. Situated in the north of the Indian Himalayas, sandwiched between Pakistan in the West and Chinese-ruled Tibet in the East. Ladakh is a young land, formed only a few million years ago by the buckling and folding of the earth's crust as the Indian sub-continent pushed with irresistible force against the immovable mass of Asia. Its basic contours, uplifted by these unimaginable tectonic movements, have been modified over the millennia by the opposite process of erosion, sculpted into the form we see today by wind and water.Ladakh lies at altitudes ranging from about 9,000 feet (2,750 m) at Kargil to 25,170 feet (7,672 m) at Saser Kangri in the Karakoram.Thus summer temperatures rarely exceed about 27°C in the shade, while in winter they may plummet to minus 20°C even in Leh. Surprisingly, though, the thin air makes the heat of the sun even more intense than at lower altitudes; it is said that only in Ladakh can a man sitting in the sun with his feet in the shade suffer from sunstroke and frostbite at the same time!

---