Must see attractions in Ladakh

Top Choice

Bearing a passing similarity to the Potala Palace in Lhasa (Tibet), this nine-storey dun-coloured edifice is Leh's dominant structure and architectural…

Top Choice

Glorious Thiksey Gompa is one of Ladakh’s biggest and most recognisable monasteries, photogenically cascading down a raised rocky promontory. At its heart…

Top Choice

The original murals and statues within these four outwardly modest 11th-century temples are considered the crowning glory of Ladakh’s Indo-Tibetan art…

Behind Leh’s central Jamia Masjid, winding alleys and stairways burrow between and beneath a series of old mud-brick Ladakhi houses and eroded chortens…

Directly above Old Diskit, a 2km spaghetti of hairpins winds up to this photogenic monastery complex, much of which dates to between the 14th and 17th…

Lamayuru's gompa is one of the most photogenic Buddhist monasteries in Ladakh. Behind glass within the gompa’s main prayer hall is a tiny cave-niche in…

Founded in the late 14th century as See-Thub (Exemplary) Monastery, impressive Spituk Gompa surveys the Sengye Tsangpo (Indus) Valley, with surreal views…

Dominating Leh from a high, rocky ridge, this gigantic white spired pudding of a stupa was built between 1983 and 1991 by Japanese monks to promote world…

Predating Hemis Monastery by several centuries, Gotsang is a hillside hermitage with two attractive main temple buildings. The main shrine is the mountain…

This arts-media trust occupies an adjoining pair of 17th-century Ladakhi mansions, one of which was the home of the munshi (king's secretary) and thus one…

Visible from virtually everywhere in Leh, 16th-century Tsemo (Victory) Fort is a defining landmark that crowns the top of Palace Ridge, though there's…

The trio of millennium-old temple chambers at Manggyu share many of the features that you'll see at the world-famous Choskhor temple complex at Alchi but…

This stately three-storey edifice was built in 1820 by King Tsepal Namgyal – a good investment, it turned out, since 14 years later his larger main palace…

The Yabgo rajas of Chorbat-Baltistan trace their dynasty back to Central Asia, and have had a palace in Turtuk from at least the 15th century. What…

Rising above Basgo village on a surreal collection of eroded earthen pinnacles are the photogenic stubs of a once-great palace dating from when Basgo was…

At 5602m, Khardung La is claimed (and disputed) to be the world’s highest motorable pass. A plethora of prayer flags festoons a flanking chaos of rocks…

This expansive, 17th-century monastery is the spiritual centre of Ladakh’s Drukpa Buddhists; it was the fifth Gyaling Drukpa who founded Hemis after…

Remote 600-year-old Ensa Monastery, 35km north of Sumur on the west bank of the Nubra, feels like it's close to the end of the world. The monastery itself…

One of Leh's most remarkable buildings, this tapered four-storey stone tower is a modern construction based on a historic Lhasa mansion and built on the…

The golden form of Ney's 21st-century Buddha statue is claimed to be 26m tall. In reality it looks about half that high but is still an impressive sight…