Perched high above the valley on a precarious boulder from which there is a steep fall to the River Hunza below, the Altit Fort is actually older than the nearby Baltit Fort in Karimabad, the capital of Hunza Valley located in Gilgit-Baltistan. Indeed, Altit was about to topple over the cliff when its owner, Prince Amin Khan, donated it to the Aga Khan Cultural Service-Pakistan (AKCS-P) in 2001. They carried out immediate emergency repairs (reinforcing some of the walls and propping up the roofs) and restored the fort so well that this year it has won the Award of Distinction, given out by the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards. These are prestigious global awards that recognise painstaking conservation efforts throughout the world.
This is actually the 10th consecutive year that the AKCS-P’s community-based conservation projects have been recognised through the winning of a UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award. According to Salman Beg, the head of the AKCS-Pakistan, “you will also be glad to know that Gilgit-Baltistan, and more specifically the Karakoram region, has the distinction of being the most UNESCO-heritage-awarded geographic region in the Asia-Pacific!”
The Norwegian government funded the restoration of the Altit Fort and a group of highly trained women from the community carried out the work. They now manage the fort and the coffee shop located in the picturesque orchard below it. The women’s organisation is called “SIQAM” (green in the Brushaski language) which also stands for Skills Improvement through Qualitative Advancement of the Marginalised. The women are also trained in carpentry and topographical survey and work out of an office located inside the fort itself. The fort has not been turned into a museum like Baltit; rather it is used by the community for their own activities although visitors and tourists are more than welcome.
In return for handing over the fort, the AKCSP built Prince Amin a new house in the garden just below the fort. The lush green orchard has some old apricot and apple trees and is a lovely picnic spot where the AKCSP has opened a café so that visitors can have tea and rest under the shady trees.
The Altit Fort is over 800 years old and is said to be the birth place of the Hunza kingdom and the first fort of the region — it is also much smaller than Baltit. Back in those early days the Mirs of Hunza made a good living plundering the caravans on the ancient silk route, which passed through their valley. Built on two enormous rocks on a cliff, the fort appears to be a part of the rocks, and with its stone structure and cribbage frames the fort clearly has its own natural defence system.
When the capital shifted to Karimabad, Altit Fort was used only in the summers, and during the British era it became a guest-house. Then around thirty years ago, when the kingdom of Hunza became a part of Pakistan, it was completely abandoned.“Mir Jamal (Prince Amin’s father) was the last Mir who used this fort”, recalls a resident who lives below the fort. There is a historic settlement located below the fort.
The AKCSP has done a great job in rehabilitating this settlement and today it has clean, narrow alleys and well kept stone houses. Through the community’s participation, the AKCSP has helped build proper sanitation (including a sewage treatment plant whose by-product is used as fertiliser in the fields), underground electricity lines and access to clean, piped water. A Town Management Society manages the strategic planning for the village.
The entrance to Altit Fort is hardly dramatic. A few stone steps lead up to a narrow entrance which leads to the main space, an empty rectangular structure. The three storey watchtower that can be spotted from a distance and which gives Altit its charming silhouette (with a wooden ibex on top) was a later addition.
The watchtower, which was built by Balti craftsmen, has been carefully restored and there is a new wooden ladder inside which one can climb to the top where the view is spectacular.
On the one side is the near vertical cliff and river below and on the other side, the historic settlement. This fort surely has one of the most dramatic views in the world!