Type: Monument - Mosque
Province: Gilgit-Baltistan
District: Ghanche
Period: Historic
Relative Chronology: 14th-15th Century CE
Description: This mosque was built with a traditional cribbage and cator technique, using stone, timber and mud. The building consists of a prayer hall and an entrance verandah on its eastern side. There are two small windows on the northern and southern walls of the prayer hall, as well as a mihrab (niche) built-in dry-stone masonry. According to a local resource, Raja Tahawar Ali Khan, this mosque was constructed by Raja Hatam Ali Khan around 600 years ago. Previously, the mosque was used specifically for meditation by the earliest Muslims of the area, converts from Buddhism. Five plane trees once stood at this site, but were cut down by the last Raja nearly fifty years ago. There is said to have existed a fort -palace in the vicinity of the Chumik Khari Mosque. This now-extinct fort-palace was called the Sandoq Khar, meaning Box-Fort in the local Balti language, and was named after its appearance.
Latitude: 35.186367000
Longitude: 76.355833000
Ownership: Private
Legal Status: Not Protected
Title of Publication: History of Northern Areas of Pakistan: Up to 2000 A.D.
Published In: Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore
Year of Publication: 2001
Bibliography/Reference: Dani, Ahmed Hassan
