The fort lies at the western edge of a large plain formed as the alluvial fan of a river called Changlung Lungpa, which falls into Pangong Lake from the north.

[2][3] The Khurnak Fort stands on a large plain called Ot or Ote at the centre of Pangong Lake on its northern bank.

[3][10] The growth of the plain over the millennia has reduced the lake in its vicinity to a narrow channel "like a large river" for about 2–3 miles, with a minimum breadth of 50 yards.

H. H. Godwin-Austen[e] noted in 1867 that all of Khurnak Plain had considerable growth of grass and formed a winter grazing area for the Changpa nomads.

[17] (Map 3) Godwin-Austen mentioned the Khurnak Fort, whose ruins stood on a low rock (elevation: 4,257 m) on the northwestern side of the plain.

[20] The Khurnak Plain, being a prized winter pasture ground, was the preserve of the shepherds from Noh, the only permanently inhabited place on the north shore of Pangong Lake.

[21] In 1863, British topographer Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen described Khurnak as a disputed plain claimed both by inhabitants of Panggong district and Tibetan authorities from Lhasa.

He personally believed that it should belong to the latter due to the "old fort standing on a low rock on the north-western side of the plain" previously built by the Tibetans.

[22][13] Godwin-Austen remarked that the Kashmiri authorities in Leh had recently exerted their influence in the region such that Khurnak was effectively controlled by the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.

[28] In 1963, Khurnak Fort was described by the US National Photographic Interpretation Center as follows: Location--33-44N 78-59E, 20 nm north-east of Chushul, on the north shore of PangongTso.