Kharpocho Fort قلعہ کھرپوچو | |
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![]() A view of fort from the foot of Mont Kharpocho | |
Location | Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan |
Coordinates | 35°18′15″N 75°38′22″E / 35.30406°N 75.63957°E |
Built | 16th Century CE |
Skardu Fort or Kharpocho (Balti: کھر فچو; Urdu: قلعہ سکردو), meaning The king of Forts, is a fort in Skardu in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. Australian mountaineer and film maker Greg Child writes that the fort is "perched above the junction of the rivers" and overlooks the Rock of Skardu.[1]
The fort was built by king Ali Sher Khan Anchan at the end of the sixteenth century.[2] During his invasion of Baltistan in 1840, the Dogra general Zorawar Singh stormed it and razed it to the ground.[3][4]
Zorawar Singh had another fort built on level ground next to the Kharpocho hill. The fort remained till the First Kashmir War in 1947, when the Gilgit Scouts laid a siege to it fighting against the Jammu and Kashmir State Forces under the command of Lt. Col. Sher Jung Thapa. Thapa eventually surrendered after running out of rations.[5][6] [7]