Pakistan
Attabad Lake
Turquoise water filling a valley that was dry land until a 2010 landslide rewrote geography overnight.
The water is the wrong colour for its altitude. Attabad Lake in Pakistan's Upper Hunza glows an opaque turquoise that shifts to teal where shadows fall from the Karakoram walls above. Beneath the surface, an entire section of the old Karakoram Highway lies submerged, along with orchards, homes, and the village of Attabad itself — drowned in a single night.
Attabad Lake was born on 4 January 2010, when a massive landslide blocked the Hunza River near Gojal, burying the village of Attabad and displacing thousands. The backed-up river created a 21-kilometre lake at 2,600 metres that now sits on the main route of the Karakoram Highway. Boat trips cross the lake to guesthouses on the far shore, passing above drowned tunnels and orchard walls visible in the clear water. Kayaking and paddleboarding operators have set up along the shore, with the jagged Passu Cones as a backdrop. The lake continues to evolve — its level and colour shift with glacial meltwater input, making it a landscape that is still being written.
Solo
The far-shore guesthouses, reachable only by boat, offer a rare kind of Karakoram solitude — glacial silence, turquoise water, and mountain walls with no road noise.
Couple
A boat crossing at dusk, when the Passu Cones turn gold and the water darkens to ink, is one of northern Pakistan's most quietly romantic experiences.
Family
The lake is calm, the boat rides gentle, and the story of how it was born — a whole valley flooded overnight — captivates children who can see the evidence beneath the surface.
Friends
Kayaking beneath the Passu Cones on glacially cold water at 2,600 metres, then grilling trout on a lakeside platform — this is the Karakoram Highway stop nobody expects.
- The lake formed in January 2010 when a landslide blocked the Hunza River, submerging a village and 22 kilometres of the Karakoram Highway.
- The water colour is an intense aquamarine — glacial rock flour suspended in the lake creates a shade that photographs as almost unreal.
- Boat rides cross the lake above the rooftops of the submerged village of Attabad — on still days the buildings are visible through the water.
- CPEC tunnels now bypass the lake after years when ferries were the only way through — the original highway is still visible above the waterline.
Grilled trout on lakeside platforms built over water that didn't exist fifteen years ago.
Chapshuro from nearby Gulmit — meat-stuffed bread from Hunza's best cooks.
Fresh apricot juice in summer from shoreline stalls along the new Karakoram Highway.
Niagara Falls
United States
Six million cubic feet of water per minute plunging into mist you feel a mile away.
Santa Maria
Portugal
The Azores' oldest island hides a red clay desert and golden beaches the other islands lack.
Santa Maria
Cape Verde
Trade winds blast a long golden beach where kitesurfers trace arcs above turquoise Atlantic rollers.
Jericoacoara
Brazil
Windswept dunes where the sun melts into the sea from a natural stone arch.
Hunza Valley
Pakistan
Apricot orchards cascading down terraces where three of Earth's mightiest mountain ranges collide.
Fairy Meadows
Pakistan
A wildflower carpet at 3,300 metres where Nanga Parbat's killer face fills the entire sky.
Skardu
Pakistan
Sand dunes and glacial lakes sharing the same valley floor beneath Karakoram granite walls.
Naltar Valley
Pakistan
Three lakes cycling through turquoise, emerald, and sapphire depending on the angle of light.