Hindu Temples of the Salt Range (and Khewra Salt Mine)

Khewra Salt Mine is one of the more famous tourist attractions near Islamabad.  Said to be one of the largest salt mines in the world, and in operation since Mughal times, it is certainly fun to visit and to be totally enclosed in beautiful walls of smooth pinkish salt.  I do not discourage visiting the mines, even though they are somewhat crowded, "foreigner fee" admission is steep at around $10, and the tour guides provide a useless service for which they harass you for tips afterward (an unusual experience in Pakistan more reminiscent of Egypt or India).  The instructions in this post will take you to the mine itself (which is about two hours from Islamabad); this post is not primarily, however, about the actual mine.

Far far more interesting that Khewra Salt Mine, in my opinion, are three Hindu temples located near the mine, more or less on the way to the mine from Islamabad.  This post is about those little detours, and focuses on the slightly tricky navigation it requires to find especially the second site.

First, an overview of the route from Islamabad to Khewra Salt Mine, which is principally along the Motorway which connects Islamabad to Lahore.  You can get on the Motorway by driving all the way west on Kashmir Highway.

Next, an inset of the "green box" in the map above, showing the entire off-motorway route.  The three sites covered in this post are Malot Temple, Shiv Ganga Temple and Katas Temple.  The purple line near Shiv Ganga Temple is a stretch of road not shown in Google Maps (and for which a higher clearance vehicle or good driver is recommended).

Malot Temple

You should take the exit from the Motorway at Kallar Kahar, a salt lake that is itself a sort of tourist attraction.  One direction off of the highway takes you toward the lake, which I found somewhat uninteresting, while the other takes you in the direction of Katas and Choa Saidan Shah, which is the direction you want to go.  The road travels parallel to the highway for a short stretch.  You want to take the first real right turn, in the direction of "Chhoie Mallot" on the map below.  The road is steep but solid, used I believe for cement trucks. If you follow this road for a while you will eventually see Malot Temple in the distance, above a small village.  The temples at Malot, from which there are incredibly dramatic views down to the plains below, are said to date from the 9th century, in Kashmiri style.  They are in surprisingly good condition and merit some exploration.  From http://www.himalmag.com/component/content/article/2794-.html:

Malot. The most beautiful of the Salt Range temple ruins are surely those of Malot. Made of deep red sandstone, the building stands on a hill to the southwest of the village of that name. The temple comes alive every morning as the red sandstone facade is set aflame by the slanting rays of the sun, a time when the lingam in the inner sanctum would have seen light. 

The most remarkable feature of the Malot temple is its Grecian character, seen in its two fluted columns and the Doric capitals of the main entrance which held up an arch that caved in long ago. The roof is crowned with an ugly wart, a lookout built by the Sikhs after they overran the region in 1810. Originally, the building rose beautifully in an ornate red spire or sikhara, evidence of which can be seen on the three facades that replicate the complete building in miniature. 

Malot must have been built early in the 9th century AD, when the rule of the Kashmiri kings had brought peace and prosperity. That was also the time when most of the Greek buildings of Taxila were still standing, providing inspiration to local stone masons to incorporate Western designs into their work.

Shiv Ganga Temple

Getting from Malot to Shiv Ganga Temple is the trickiest part of this itinerary.  To skip it, you could return to the road from the Motorway to Katas, and continue on to Katas directly.  Here is a Google Map of the route, along with the green box inset in satellite view.  The purple line indicates where Google Maps does not show a road to exist.

From Malot, return back down the hill and then take a right instead of returning to the main road.  This road will empty out into a small village, where the road will seem to disappear altogether.  If you look and ask around you will find a road turning to the left/north of the village, which cuts along some fields and then heads uphill.  This is the road that you want to take.  For the first couple miles this road is pretty rough, and most people would feel more comfortable in a high clearance vehicle.  The first time we took this road we did it in an SUV-type vehicle.  The second time, we were okay doing it in a smaller car.  But rest assured that pavement returns fairly quickly.

After passing some small coal mining operations, similar to those near Malot, and back on the paved road, you will encounter a more lush patch of trees to the right/below the road, and a small truck stop to the left of the road.  This is where you should park.  The temple lies just below, along a beautiful stream.  In addition to exploring the ruins of the temple, and a cave behind, you should follow the stream downhill, where there is a small waterfall.  Unless locals have just been bathing or doing laundry you will find the water beautifully clear and inviting.  I know nothing about the history of this temple--but with the overgrowth it has a romance not dissimilar from the temples of Angkor Wat.

Katas Temple

Returning to the main road, you can't miss Katas Temple as the road turns sharply south toward Choa Saidan Shah.  Park on the side of the road and enter the complex, which has been well-developed and is often full of local tourists.  Katas is a truly ancient and expansive site, centered around a lake that is said to be the twin of Pushkar Lake in Rajasthan, India.  An important Hindu religious site, it is still a place of pilgrimage.  Also located at the site is an excavation of a Buddhist Stupa, showing that the location has been a place of worship for many many centuries.  There is also a small British-era fort among the ruins.  Katas takes a good hour or two to explore, even casually.

From Katas it is a simple but beautiful and dramatic drive to Khewra.  Not only is the town of Choa Saidan Shah quite scenic, but the curvy drive down the salt range to Khewra itself provides outstanding views, including of one dramatically perched village.  If you got such an early start that the Salt Mine is still open for visits, go ahead and check it out!  If not, you can still do a little salt lamp shopping just outside of the mine and return to Islamabad on the Motorway.

Practicalities

The motorway is an easy drive, far less stressful than the Grand Trunk Road.  The second map above shows where there are rest stops along the motorway--there is one each in both the southbound and northbound directions, where you can stop for a proper Pakistani or Pakistani-Chinese meal, as well as tea.  Please note the road conditions noted above for the route from Malot to Shiv Ganga Temple.