Central Karakoram National Park the world and the largest protected area in Pakistan. It covers about in the Central Karakoram mountain range. It varies in altitude from above sea level to the summit of chogori K2, the world's second highest mountain at . There are three other mountains over , Gasherbrum I (), Gasherbrum II () and phalchanri Broad Peak (), and sixty mountains over . The park also includes the Baltoro, Panmah, Biafo and Hispar glaciers and their tributary glaciers and is considered to be one of the most beautiful national parks in Pakistan. In 2013 it was stated that the exact boundaries
Balti language "Byaltae" from , which, in Tibetan, means "water gorge." The historian Ptolemy, also a general in the army of Alexander the Great, named the region "Byaltae" in his book. In fact, Baltistan is the Persian translation of "Baltiyul", "homeland of Balti." Balti people are settled on both banks of the Indus River from Kargil district in the east to Haramosh Peak in the west and from the Karakoram in the north to Deosai National Park in the south. The Balti ethnicity is primarily Tibetan in origin, with some Dardic admixture. Balti is a Tibetic language. In some rural areas, the