Saif ul Malook Lake Tour
Pakistan is a country rich in natural blessings
which has the most beautiful tourist places in the world. There is a remarkable
area known as Kaghan Valley which is famous for its amazing weather, scenery,
fruits, lakes, rivers and mountains. Kaghan Valley also has the most beautiful
creation of nature called Saif ul Malook Lake.
Saif ul Malook Lake is named after a famous
prince who is attributed to a story of Prince Saif ul Malook of Iran, while the
prince fell in love with a queen of fairies; Princess Badi al Jamal, on the
lake.
Where is this lake located?
To reach the beautiful Lake Saif ul Malook, you
have to go to federal capital Islamabad. After starting the journey from Hazara
Motorway, you reach Abbottabad and then Mansehra city. From Mansehra on the
Karakoram Highway, Naran Babusar Top Road goes to Naran Kaghan Valley via
Balakot.
After Naran Valley, tourists can visit Lake
Saif ul Malook by hiking or jeep. It is located at an altitude of 10,580 feet
above sea level. The surface area of Saif ul Malook Lake is about 3.6 km. The
distance from Naran to Saif ul Malook is 8 km which takes about 1 hour to
reach.
The lake supplies water to
Kunhar River from where the peak of mountain called Malika Parbat offers a
magnificent view. The area receives a good amount of rain each year so you may
find your path washed away. As you approach Saif ul Malook Lake, you will find
food stalls nearby, including food stalls, pakoras, tea and other general items
like snacks, sweets, etc.
Beautiful Entertainment Venue
Saif ul Malook Lake has
been named as the fifth most beautiful resort in Pakistan by ‘The Guardian’ and
called it heaven on earth. Nestled in the high and snow-capped mountains of Malika
Parbat, this lake of clear blue water occupies a prominent place in the hearts
of Pakistani and foreign tourists due to its beauty.
The lake receives glacial
water from various sources, but ecological diversity is also part of the lake's
beauty, including a rare brown trout, greenish-blue algae, and a variety of
aquatic plants and phytoplankton.
Favorite Tourist Activities
This lake is like a bowl
in which water coming from different snowy mountains collects. It has a large
number of trout fish. Trout fishing is popular in Kaghan Valley.
In winter, the lake
freezes completely due to snowfall. From June to September, hordes of tourists
visit this place. The climate of this beautiful place is very pleasant during
the day (around 15 to 20 degrees Celsius). While the temperature drops to 3
degrees at night when summer is at its peak in the rest of the country, who
wouldn't want to visit such a place?
Boating facilities are
also available for adventure enthusiasts. But tourists need to be careful as
depth of the lake is still unknown, and due to remote area there is no rescue
facility. So take care when sailing. There is also horse-riding facility here,
which also provides employment to local people.
Camping during a full moon
is like being in a fairyland. It is recommended for those who want to see moon
shining among five billion stars in the sky.
Trout fish is also popular
in nearby Naran and Kaghan. Lake weather is unpredictable, no one knows when
the sun will hide behind the clouds and it will start raining. The lake
receives water from melting glaciers. While the mountain called Malika Parbat
is located in the east of lake, whose face is clearly visible in transparent
water like a mirror of the lake.
Lalazar and Lake Saif ul Malook
are not only attractions in Valley Naran and Kaghan, but there is also a lake
called Ansu Lake. Apart from Sat Sarmala Lakes (chain of seven lakes), there
are other beautiful lakes in this region such as Lolossar, Ratigali, Dudipsar
and Saral lakes which are popular tourist attractions.
Babusar Top and Noori Top
are two high places here which are attractive for trekking. At an altitude of
5,290 meters, Malika Parbat is the highest peak in Kaghan Valley and is
considered one of the most important technical peaks above 5,000 meters. In
recent years, Nanga Parbat has attracted the attention of domestic and foreign
tourists and mountaineers. More than 2 expeditions during the summit in 2012
have increased its importance.
As we mentioned earlier,
the lake has an abundance of ecological diversity with blue-green algae and
brown trout weighing up to 7 kg being the specialty of Lake Saif ul Malook.
About 26 species of vascular plants are found in this region, among which
sunflower-like plants are important. During the summer, the climate of Lake
Saif ul Malook is quite pleasant. If you are looking for a place away from
hustle and bustle of the city, then there is no better place than Saif ul Malook
Lake.
A Fairy Tale of Saif ul Malook Lake
The history of this
magnificent lake is very famous and attracts tourists from all over the world.
The story is about a prince Saif ul-Malook, who fell in love with the fairy
princess Badi al-Jamal.
The legendary story of Saif
ul Malook Lake was written by a Sufi poet Mian Muhammad Bakhsh in his poetry.
Prince Saif ul Malook was the only son of great Egyptian king Asim Bin Safwan.
The father once gifted his son with a stamp of supreme power. The prince used
to look at the two images that were on the stamp. This stamp was the family
property of Hazrat Sulaiman (a.s).
Later, the prince
recognized one of the two pictures as his own, while the other was a beautiful
fairy whose beauty was eternal and divine. Saif ul Malook fell in love with
this fairy for the first time and when his father found out about the love of a
concubine and his son, he sent his guards and warriors in search of the fairy,
but all failed to find her.
Later, one night, the
prince has a dream in which the fairy appears to him and introduces herself as
Badi al-Jamal, the queen of the fairies. After waking up, the prince goes in
search of his love and meets a saint who tells him how and where he can find
the fairy. He also informs him about the obstacles and difficulties that prince
might encounter in his quest for the fairy, since the prince was a human being
and the fairy was other creature.
Love still compels the
prince to continue his search for the fairy. The prince's journey takes form of
spirituality as he faces many challenges. He sees a lake that he has never seen
before. The lake is surrounded by mountains talking to the sky. The water of
lake looks very beautiful and shiny in the moonlight.
In the same lake, there
are 7 fairies with soft skin, bright eyes and curly hair. All the fairies are
similar in beauty to each other, but the beauty of the seventh fairy surpasses
all others. She appears as radiant as the fourteenth moon and her laughter
captures the prince's heart. Even when he wakes up from dream, the sound still
lingers in his ears. The prince has never dreamed of such beauty and magical
effect in his entire life.
After six years of
tiresome struggle and fierce competition, the prince found himself in the
heavens. After a conversation with Badi al-Jamal, Saif ul Malook Prince learns
that he has been possessed by a white giant for the past 10 years and is
trapped in a palace in Mount Qaf. The white giant also loves the fairy very
much. After hearing the story of fairy queen, Saif ul Malook takes her and
tries to escape from Qaf Mountain. When the white giant finds out, he rages in
the lake and creates a commotion, which in turn floods the Kaghan Valley.
Both Saif ul Malook and Fairy
hide in a graveyard a few miles away from Naran, but due to floods they have to
take shelter in a cave near the lake. According to classical legend, the Lake
of Tears, a few miles from Saif ul Malook, was born from the tears of white
giant when he realized that the fairy had gone. According to legend, the prince
and the fairy remain in cave to this day and dance on the surface of Lake Saif ul
Malook every fourteenth night according to lunar calendar.
Local residents believe
that Saif ul Malook and Badi al-Jamal are still alive in the cave. This claim
is more fiction than reality, but it cannot be denied that whole Kaghan valley
is still filled with the scent of Badi al-Jamal's body and the breath of Saif ul
Malook.
This story has been
composed by dozens of poets, but the fame that Mian Muhammad Bakhsh's story
got, could not be achieved by anyone else. The name of this work of Mian
Muhammad Bakhsh is Safar al-Ishq known as the story of Saif ul Malook and Badi
al-Jamal, which consists of 9248 poems verses. In this poem written in Lahindi
(Pahaadi) language, Shariat, Tariqat, reality and knowledge are present in
every level of perfection, there is also a description of beauty and also a
description of phenomena of nature.
i am enjoyed may last trip here. very cool place
ReplyDeleteLalusar Lake
Nice, you are lucky man.
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