The Indus River is a 3,180-kilometre (1,980 mi)
transboundary and trans-
Himalayan river that rises in western
Tibet before flowing northwest through the regions of
Ladakh and
Gilgit-Baltistan in
Kashmir. The river then bends sharply to the left after the
Nanga Parbat massif, flows generally southwest through Pakistan, and empties into the
Arabian Sea near the port city of
Karachi. The Indus has a total
drainage-basin area exceeding 1,165,000 km2 (450,000 sq mi). Its estimated annual flow is around 243 km3 (58 cu mi), making it one of the fifty largest
rivers in the world by discharge. This photograph shows the Indus valley near the city of
Leh, a capital of
Ladakh in Indian-administered Kashmir.Photograph credit:
KennyOMG