LEH, Ladakh -- 3,500 meters above sea level, the cold desert of Ladakh stands at the crossroads of history. The glassy River Indus and its tributaries form ribbons across a stark landscape where the Karakoram mountains meet the Himalayas in jagged peaks and deep valleys.
In this isolated region, tourism was almost unknown until the 1970s, but the moonlike landscape and hiking trails are now attracting increasing numbers of adventurous visitors to Ladakh, a high-altitude frontier region where India shares a disputed border with China.
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