Gilgit (Urdu: گلگت) is the capital city of the Northern Areas, Pakistan and a tehsil (headquarters) of Gilgit District. Its ancient name was Sargin which later on came to be known as Gilit and it is still called Gilit or Sargin-Gilit by local people, it was the Sikh and Dogra conquerors who gave it the name of Gilgit , in the Burushaski language, it is named Geelt. Ghallata is considered its name in ancient Sanskrit literature. Gilgit city is one of the two major hubs on the Northern Areas for all mountaineering expeditions of Karakoram to the peaks of the Himalayas, the other hub being Skardu.
Gilgit has an area of . The region is significantly mountainous, lying on the foothills of the Karakoram mountains, and has an average altitude of . It is drained by the Indus River, which rises in the neighbouring regions of Ladakh and Baltistan.
