North of Hunza River is a place that is widely believed to have inspired the Shangri-La of James Hilton in his famous book, a place of ancient settlements and forts, prehistoric rock art, 7000-metre peaks, and remarkably long-lived people. Despite the near-fictional characteristics, this is in fact a real place: this is Hunza Valley, which lies at an altitude of approximately 2,500m from sea level.
Hunza Valley used to be administered as a princely state, and though Aliabad is the current capital, Baltit (which is now called …