Copyright photo PS
.
.
Enlarge:
1. Simply click the upper-right diagonal arrows;
Further enlarge: Then press F11 on a PC, or Fullscreen. Allow re-focus.
Or
2. Max enlarge: If flickr's
+ cursor is showing, click it for max enlargement and allow to re-focus. Explore detail moving cursor.
.
wikimapia fort-monastery above Leh
Leh is Ladakh's significant town; and wonderfully perched on mountain pinnacle above it is this historic combined monastery and fortress.
Called Namgyal Tsemo.
Architectural exclamation at its highest!
The red Maitreya temple, Tsemo Gompa is the structure as you ascend to the ridge top. Just above the Tsemo Gompa stands the Gongkhang, shrine of protector of deities, which was erected by King Tashi Namgyal in the mid 16th C. At the very top of the ridge, reached by scrambling up the shear slope, are the remains of the 16th C palace and fort of King Namgyal, Leh's first royal residence. Like all Ladakh capitals, Leh had its first fortresses at the highest elevations, with later, more confident kings choosing to build palaces lower down. Here, one of the towers still retains an overhanging wooden balcony. This fort is sometimes called the Victory Fort.
(Historians think there may have even been a fortress dating back to the 5th century.)
