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Field guides / Azad Jammu and Kashmir / Sharda
Field guide · Nature
The Neelum Valley's largest town, framed by snow peaks, and home to the ancient Sharda Peeth university ruins, once one of South Asia's great centres of learning.
Sharda is the Neelum Valley's largest town beyond Muzaffarabad, framed by snow-streaked peaks and set beside the river. Its real claim to fame predates modern tourism by over a thousand years: the ruins of Sharda Peeth, once one of South Asia's foremost centres of learning and pilgrimage, sit on a pine-covered rise above the town. Today Sharda is also the practical hub for reaching Ratti Gali Lake and continuing up-valley to Kel.
Why go
Sharda Peeth was one of the Indian subcontinent's most important centres of Sanskrit scholarship and Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage from roughly the 8th century onward, its script, Sharada, once used across the wider Kashmir region and giving the town its name. The ruins, a stone temple-university complex, still stand on the hill above the modern town.
Sharda works well as a one or two-night base, close enough to Ratti Gali Lake for a day trip and positioned for an early start onward to Kel, use Plan a trip to sequence it.
Planning tip
Best Time to Visit, May to September; the ruins and river activities are best in clear summer weather.
Getting there, About 150 km, roughly 4-5 hours, from Muzaffarabad on the metalled Neelum road via Athmuqam.
Allow, A half to full day for the ruins and riverside, or a night if using Sharda as a base for Ratti Gali Lake.
Straight-line distance from Sharda, within 30 km.
