Saif-ul-Muluk, Kaghan Valley and Malika Parbat (Queen of the mountains - 5,290 metres (17,356 ft))
At an altitude of 3,224 m (10,578 feet) above sea level it is amongst one of the highest lakes in Pakistan.
A fairy tale called Saiful Muluk, written by a famous sufi poet, is associated with the lake. It is the story of the prince of Persia who fell in love with a fairy princess at the lake. The impact of the lake beauty is of such extent that people believe that fairies come down to lake in full moon.
We visited in late Summer and crossed a glacier on the way up the mountain courtesy of our jeeps and drivers. It was still very cold up there. We decided to walk around the lake, at the far end we had to wade across a stream fed by the melting snows. Some enterprising locals rode up on ponies and offered to take us across for a fee, I was carrying my precious camera so decided to wade across, and as I wanted to carefully carry the camera I decided to leave my hiking boots on so I only had to carry one thing. I'm told the rocks were sharp so I made the right choice. I just took them off, emptied out the water and wrung out my socks and put them back on. The dried out wonderfully. An even smarter friend took the trip rowed by the boatman seen here.
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