Thalpan, located opposite to the Chilas town, bears the most abundant collection of rock-art in Pakistan — the Pakistan-German Archaeological Mission has published about them in six dedicated volumes and traced them to Greco-Buddhist antiquity.

[2][a] Buddhist Stupas and anthropomorphic Buddhas remain the most common subject of rock-carvings in and around Chilas.

[3] Karl Jettmar suggests that Chilas might have had been a Buddhist sanctuary while Harald Hauptmann hypothesizes Thalpan to be the "Talilo" of Chinese sources; however, in absence of excavations, such claims remain in the realm of speculations.

[9][10] The Raja was soon deposed and Chilas functioned as a 'republican community' under the aegis of jirga, a body of local landowning men.

Before the Karakoram Highway was opened in 1978, the only road from the south to the town of Gilgit was a rough track north from Balakot to the Babusar Pass (via Kaghan, Naran, Besal, and Gittidas) and further north from Babusar Gah to Chilas.