Khaplu (Urdu: خپلو, pronounced: [xəpluː]; Balti: ཁཔ་ལུ།), also spelt Khapalu,[1] is a city that serves as the administrative capital of the Ghanche District in Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, within the disputed Kashmir region.

[2] Located 103 km (64 mi) east of Skardu, Khaplu was historically the second-largest kingdom in Baltistan under the Yabgo dynasty and played a key role in guarding the trade route to Ladakh along the Shyok River, near its confluence with the Indus.

Other notable tourist sites include Ehlie Broq, Hanjor, Thoqsi Khar, Kaldaq, and the Shyok River.

[3] The first mention of the former small kingdom called Khápula is in Mirza Haidar's work Tarikh-i-Rashidi, [4] which lists the Khaplu district of Balti(stan).

[citation needed] The first European to visit Khaplu was probably Captain Claude Martin Wade, who mentioned "Chílú" in 1835 in an essay in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

[citation needed] Subsequently, William Moorcroft and George Trebeck wrote in their 1841 book:[5] "Kafalun is a province west of Nobra, on the left bank of the Shayuk."

Godfrey Vigne was in the area in 1835–1838, relying in particular on the local mountain fortress, commented that he was still in an intact condition[6][clarification needed] Alexander Cunningham,[7] who did not visit Baltistan, published a brief geographical description of Khaplu and a genealogy of its rulers in 1854.