About the Indus
The Indus is the river that gave India its name — the Sanskrit 'Sindhu' became 'Hindu' in Persian and 'Indus' in Greek, and it was the Indus Valley Civilisation (c.3300–1300 BCE) that built some of the world's earliest cities at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa on the river's banks. One of Asia's longest rivers at over 3000 kilometres in total, only about 1114 kilometres of the Indus flow through Indian territory — primarily through the high-altitude deserts of Ladakh — before entering Pakistan under the terms of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.
The Ladakhi section of the Indus is one of the world's most dramatic river landscapes — a cold, clear river flowing through a high-altitude desert of red and ochre cliffs at altitudes between 2600 and 4000 metres, shadowed by peaks exceeding 7000 metres. Hemis National Park on the Indus's banks is India's best snow leopard destination. The river supports the critically endangered Indus river dolphin in Pakistan and historically supported mahseer fish in large numbers in its Ladakhi reaches.
Zanskar · Shyok · Nubra · Suru