Fairy Meadows ( ur, ), named by German climbers (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

''Märchenwiese'', “fairy tale meadows”) and locally known as Joot, is a grassland near one of the base camp sites of the

Nanga Parbat Nanga Parbat ( ur, ) (; ), known locally as Diamer () which means “king of the mountains”, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth, its summit at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in ...

, located in

Diamer District The Diamer District ( ur, ), also spelled Diamir District,) is a district in Gilgit-Baltistan territory of Pakistan. The headquarters of the district is the town of Chilas. The district is bounded by on the north by the Tangir and the Gilgit ...

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory, and constituting the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region which has been the subject of a dispute bet ...

, Pakistan. At an altitude of about above sea level, it serves as the launching point for trekkers summiting on the Rakhiot face of the Nanga Parbat. In 1995, the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provin ...

declared Fairy Meadows a

National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

Location

Fairy Meadows is approachable by a fifteen kilometer-long jeepable trek starting from Raikot Bridge on

Karakoram Highway The Karakoram Highway ( ur, , translit=śāhirāh qarāquram; known by its initials KKH, also known as N-35 or National Highway 35 ( ur, ) or the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway) is a national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in ...

to the village Tattu (Tato). The dangerous and narrow gravel mountain road from the bridge to the village is only open to locals, who provide transportation to visitors. In 2013, the World Health Organization declared it the second-deadliest road on the planet. From Tato onward, it takes about three to four hours hiking by a five kilometer trek to Fairy Meadows. The grassland is located in the Rakhiot valley, at one end of the Rakhiot glacier which originates from the Nanga Parbat and feeds a stream that finally falls in the

River Indus The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

. Since 1992, locals have operated camping sites in the area.

Tourism

View of cottages at Fairy Meadows - Photo by Shams Shaukat Films

The six-month tourist season at Fairy Meadows starts in April and continues until the end of September. Tourists lodge at the camping site spread over , known as "Raikot Serai". The site of Fairy Meadows, though partially developed, generates about PKR 17 million revenue from tourism, mainly by providing food, transportation and accommodation services. The road to Fairy Meadows was built by Brigadier M. Aslam Khan (M.C, H.J, F.K), First Commander Gilgit Scouts, which today employs the locals. The local community stopped the extraction of timber to conserve the forest and promote tourism in the area. The main attraction of this place other than the meadows itself is the view of Nanga Parbat Mountain. Tourists usually hike to the base camp of the mountain from Fairy Meadows.

Flora and fauna

The grassland is surrounded by thick

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

forest. The high altitude area and north-facing slopes mostly consist of

coniferous forest Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All exta ...

having ''

Pinus wallichiana ''Pinus wallichiana'' is a coniferous evergreen tree native to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains, from eastern Afghanistan east across northern Pakistan and north west India to Yunnan in southwest China. It grows in mountain valle ...

'', ''

Picea smithiana ''Picea smithiana'' is a species of evergreen tree in the family Pinaceae family It is referred to by the common names morinda spruce and West Himalayan spruce, and is a spruce native to the western Himalaya and adjacent mountains, from northeas ...

'' and ''

Abies pindrow ''Abies pindrow'', the pindrow fir or west Himalayan fir, is a fir native to the western Himalaya and adjacent mountains, from northeast Afghanistan east through northern Pakistan and India to central Nepal. Description It is a large evergr ...

'' trees, while in the high altitude areas with little sunlight are

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...

and willow dwarf shrubs. The southern slopes are concentrated with

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' () of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from the Arcti ...

and scrubs, namely ''

Juniperus excelsa ''Juniperus excelsa'', commonly called the Greek juniper, is a juniper found throughout the eastern Mediterranean, from northeastern Greece and southern Bulgaria across Turkey to Syria and Lebanon, Jordan, the Caucasus mountains, and southern c ...

'' and ''J. turkesticana''. In the low altitudes, the major plant found is ''

Artemisia Artemisia may refer to: People * Artemisia I of Caria (fl. 480 BC), queen of Halicarnassus under the First Persian Empire, naval commander during the second Persian invasion of Greece * Artemisia II of Caria (died 350 BC), queen of Caria under th ...

'', with yellow ash, stone oaks and ''

Pinus gerardiana ''Pinus gerardiana'', known as the chilgoza pine or ''neja'' is a pine native to the northwestern Himalayas in Afghanistan, northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Waziristan and northwestern India, growing at elevations between 1800 and 3350 me ...

'' spread among it. Research has suggested similarities between ''Pinus wallichiana'' found in the meadows with a sister species, ''

Pinus peuce ''Pinus peuce'' (Macedonian pine or Balkan pine) (Serbo-Croatian/ Macedonian: молика, molika; Bulgarian: бяла мура, Byala mura) is a species of pine native to the mountains of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, the ...

'', found in the Balkans, based on leaf size. Among mammals, a few

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...

s are found in the region, with their numbers declining. Some

musk deer Musk deer can refer to any one, or all seven, of the species that make up ''Moschus'', the only extant genus of the family Moschidae. Despite being commonly called deer, they are not true deer belonging to the family Cervidae, but rather their fa ...

, regarded as an endangered species, are also present.

Gallery

Hover the mouse click or tap on the following images to see their captions. File:Milky way over Fairy Meadows, Gilgit, Pakistan.jpg, Milky way over Fairy Meadows File:Nanga parbat, fairy medow, Pak by gul791.jpg, View of Nanga Parbat from Fairy Meadows File:Fairy Meadows, Pakistan.jpg, A sunny day at Fairy Meadows File:Fairy meadow gb.jpg, Sheep grazing at Fairy Meadows File:Local Polo Match Fairy Meadows Nanga Parbat.JPG, A

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

Match at Fairy Meadows File:Fairy Meadows GB Pakistan.jpg, A reflection of Killer Mountain

in a small lake in morning File:Nanga Parbat (Fairy Meadows).jpg, A full view of

behind Fairy Meadows File:Lovely Morning after a night of snowfall at Fairy meadows.JPG, Snowfall at Fairy Meadows File:Building and benches - Fairy Meadows in winter.jpg, Snow-covered wooden cottages and benches

References

{{authority control Meadows in Pakistan Camping in Pakistan Protected areas of Gilgit-Baltistan Nanga Parbat National parks of Pakistan Diamer District

Location

Tourism

Flora and fauna

Gallery

See also

References