Naran, Kaghan & Babusar

Immortalized in the 19th-century Sufi romantic poem by Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, Lake Saif-ul-Mulook is an emerald-green glacial bowl cradled beneath the towering apex of Malika Parbat ('Queen of the Mountains', 17,356 ft). Local folklore insists that fairies descend upon the lake on moonlit 14th-night skies to bathe in its mirror-like waters.

Connecting the lush alpine forests of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the dramatic barren canyons of Gilgit-Baltistan, Babusar Top is the highest point in Kaghan Valley. En route lies the vast, crescent-shaped Lulusar Lake (11,188 ft), where 1857 historical mutineers were once tracked and where the Kunhar River finds its primary headwaters.