Leh in the context of "Ladakh Range"

The Karakoram Pass (Uyghur: قاراقۇرۇم ئېغىزى) is a 5,540 m or 18,176 ft mountain pass between India and China in the Karakoram Range. It is the highest pass on the ancient caravan route between Leh in Ladakh and Yarkand in the Tarim Basin. The name 'Karakoram' comes from a Turkic language meaning 'Black Gravel'.

Historically, the high altitude of the pass and the lack of fodder were responsible for the deaths of countless pack animals while the route was notorious for the trail of bones strewn along the way. There is an almost total absence of vegetation on the approaches to the pass.

Leh district is a district in Indian-administered Ladakh in the disputed Kashmir-region. Ladakh is an Indian-administered union territory. With an area of 45,110 km, it is the second largest district in the country, second only to Kutch. It is bounded on the north by Gilgit-Baltistan's Kharmang and Ghanche districts and Xinjiang's Kashgar Prefecture and Hotan Prefecture, to which it connects via the historic Karakoram Pass. Aksai Chin and Tibet are to the east, Kargil district to the west, and Lahul and Spiti to the south. The district headquarters is in Leh. It lies between 32 and 36 degree north latitude and 75 to 80 degree east longitude.

All of Ladakh was under the administration of Leh until 1 July 1979, when the Kargil and Leh administrative districts were created. Religion has been a source of grievance between Buddhists and Muslims since the late 20th century and contributed to this division.

U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight sides and a flat or rounded bottom (by contrast, valleys carved by rivers tend to be V-shaped in cross-section). Glaciated valleys are formed when a glacier travels across and down a slope, carving the valley by the action of scouring. When the ice recedes or thaws, the valley remains, often littered with small boulders that were transported within the ice, called glacial till or glacial erratic.

Examples of U-shaped valleys are found in mountainous regions throughout the world including the Andes, Alps, Caucasus Mountains, Himalaya, Rocky Mountains, New Zealand and the Scandinavian Mountains. They are found also in other major European mountains including the Carpathian Mountains, the Pyrenees, the Rila and Pirin mountains in Bulgaria, and the Scottish Highlands. A classic glacial trough is in Glacier National Park in Montana, USA in which the St. Mary River runs. Another well-known U-shaped valley is the Nant Ffrancon valley in Snowdonia, Wales.

Nubra, also called Dumra, is a historical region of Ladakh, India that is currently administered as a subdivision and a tehsil in the Leh district. Its inhabited areas form a tri-armed valley cut by the Nubra and Shyok rivers. Its Tibetan name Dumra means "valley of flowers". Demands have been raised and BJP has hinted at creation of Nubra as a new district. Diskit, the headquarters of Nubra, is 120 km north of Leh, the capital of Ladakh.

The Shyok River meets the Nubra River (or Siachan River) to form a large valley that separates the Ladakh and Karakoram Ranges. The Shyok river is a tributary of the Indus river. The average altitude of the valley is more than 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above the sea level. The most common way to access this valley is to travel over the Khardung La pass from Leh.

The Zanskar Range is a mountain range in the union territory of Ladakh that separates the Zanskar valley from Indus valley at Leh. The range lies between and runs parallel to the Great Himalayas to the southwest and the Ladakh Range to the northeast. Geologically, the Zanskar Range is part of the Tethys Himalaya. There are a number of peaks higher than 6,500 m (21,300 ft). Its eastern part is known as Rupshu.

Nimo or Nyemo (Tibetan: སྙེ་མོ་, Wylie: snye mo) is a village and the headquarters of an eponymous community development block in the Leh district of Ladakh, India. It is located in the Leh tehsil, 35 km from Leh.

Nimoo is a stop for all the river rafting groups and is the main starting point for the annually held all-India river rafting expedition on the Indus River.
The temperature here varies from 40 °C in summer to −29 °C in winter. Due to such a harsh climate and extreme weather conditions, this area has very little vegetation cover (as seen in the picture on the right). It has a hydroelectric power plant known as the Nimu-Bazgo dam.

The Ladakhi language is a Tibetic language spoken in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. It is the predominant language in the Buddhist-dominated district of Leh, and a minority language in the district of Kargil.

Ladakhi has several dialects: Lehskat, named after Leh where it is spoken, Shamskat, spoken northwest of Leh, Stotskat, spoken in the Indus valley and which unlike the others is tonal, Nubra, spoken north of Leh, the Changthang language, spoken in the Changtang region by the Changpa people, and the Zangskari language, spoken in the Zanskar region of Ladakh.

India is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system consisting of 28 states and 8 union territories. All states, as well as the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments, both patterned on the Westminster model. The remaining five union territories are directly ruled by the central government through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were reorganised on a linguistic basis. Their structure has since remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is further divided into administrative districts.

The legislatures of three states Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand meet in different capitals for their summer and winter sessions. Ladakh has both Leh and Kargil as its administrative capitals.