Zoji La Pass

Zoji La (la = pass), at 3,528m, is one of the most strategically and geographically important mountain passes in the Himalayas - the gateway between the verdant Kashmir Valley and the high-altitude cold desert of Ladakh on the Srinagar-Leh highway. The pass is often snowbound from November to May, and even in summer the drive is dramatic - a single-lane dirt road clinging to the mountainside with vertiginous drops. The transition is spectacular: within 30 km the green meadows of Sonmarg give way to the barren, lunar landscape of Drass (one of the coldest inhabited places on Earth) and onward to Ladakh. A new all-weather Zojila tunnel (under construction) will eventually make the pass obsolete, but for now Zoji La remains one of India's most iconic road journeys.