Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

THE rescue of great houses from decay has been one of the enduring romantic causes of the last half-century. Rarely has it been done amid grander scenery or with a keener sense of social purpose than in northern Pakistan, where the Aga Khan is engaged in the repair and re-use of a series of remarkable palace-forts high in the western Himalayas. This was the stalking ground of the Great Game, when spies posing as geographers were sent to explore the high passes down which, it was feared, the Russians would sweep into India.