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Pokhara

Wednesday, July 17, 2013


 Pokhara Sub-Metropolitan City is the second largest city of Nepal with 264,991 inhabitants and is situated about 200 km west of the capital Kathmandu.It serves as the headquarters of Kaski District, Gandaki Zone and the Western Development Region.Pokhara is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Nepal. Three out of the ten highest mountains in the world — Dhaulagiri, Annapurna I and Manaslu — are situated within 30 miles (linear distance) of the city, so that the northern skyline of the city offers a very close view of the Himalayas. Due to its proximity to the Annapurna mountain range, the city is also a base for trekkers undertaking the Annapurna Circuit through the ACAP region of the Annapurna ranges in the Himalayas.
Geography

Pokhara is situated in the northwestern corner of the Pokhara Valley, which is a widening of the Seti Gandaki valley that lies in the midland region (Pahad) of the Himalayas. In this region the mountains rise very quickly and within 30 km, the elevation rises from 1,000 m to over 7,500 m. As a result of this sharp rise in altitude the area of Pokhara has one of the highest precipitation rates in the country (3,350 mm/year or 131 inches/year in the valley to 5600 mm/year or 222 inches/year in Lumle).
Even within the city there is a noticeable difference in rainfall between the south and the north of the city, the northern part of the city situated at the foothills of the mountains experiences proportionally higher amount of precipitation. The Seti Gandaki is the main river flowing through the city. The Seti Gandaki (White River) and its tributaries have created several gorges and canyons in and around the whole city which gives intriguingly long sections of terrace features to the city and surrounding areas. These long sections of terraces are interrupted by gorges which are hundreds of meters deep. The Seti gorge runs through the whole city from north to south and then west to east and at places these gorges are only a few metres wide. In the north and south, the canyons are wider.
Location
In the south the city borders on Phewa Tal (4.4 km2) at an elevation of about 827 m above sea level, and Lumle at 1,740 m in the north of the city touches the base of the Annapurna mountain range. 3 eight-thousand meter tall peaks (Dhaulagiri, Annapurna, Manaslu) can be seen from the city. The Machhapuchhre (Fishtail) with an elevation of 6,993 m is the closest to the city. The porous underground of the Pokhara valley favours the formation of caves and several caves can be found within the city limits. In the south of the city, a tributary of the Seti flowing out of the Phewa Lake disappears at Patale Chhango into an underground gorge, to reappear 500 metres further south. To the south-east of Pokhara city is the municipality of Lekhnath, a recently established town in the Pokhara valley, home to Begnas Lake.
The municipality of Pokhara spans 12 km from north to south and 6 km from east to west but, unlike the capital Kathmandu, it is quite loosely built up and still has much green space.The valley is approximately divided into four to five parts by the rivers Seti, Bijayapur, Bagadi and Fusre. The Seti Gandaki flowing through the city from north to south divides the city roughly in two halves with the business area of Chipledunga in the middle, the old town centre of Bagar in the north and the tourist district of Lakeside (Baidam) to the south all lying on the western side of the river. The gorge through which the river flows is crossed at five places at K.I. Singh Pul, Mahendra Pul and Prithvi Highway Pul from north to south of the city respectively. The floor of the valley is plain and resembles Terai due to its gravel like surface and has slanted orientation from northwest to southeast. The city is surrounded by the hills overlooking the entire valley.
Phewa Lake was slightly enlarged by damming which poses a risk of silting up due of the inflow during the monsoon. The outflowing water is partially used for hydropower generation. The dam collapsed in 1974 which resulted in draining of its water and exposing the land leading to illegal land encroachment, since then the dam has been rebuilt. The power plant is located about 100 m below at the bottom of the Phusre Khola gorge. Water from Phewa is diverted for irrigation into the southern Pokhara valley. The eastern Pokhara Valley receives irrigation water through a canal running from a reservoir by the Seti in the north of the city. Some parts of Phewa lake are used as commercial cage fisheries.
Most of the tourists visiting Pokhara begin and end trek to the Annapurna Base Camp and The tourist district is along the north shore of the lake (Baidam, Lakeside and Damside). It is mainly made up of small shops, non-star tourist hotels, restaurants and |bars Most upscale and starred hotels are on the southern and south-eastern fringes of the city where there are more open lands and therefore unhindered view of the mountains. To the east of the Pokhara valley, in Lekhnath municipality, there are seven smaller lakes such as Begnas Lake and Rupa Lake. Begnas Tal is also known for its fishery projects.
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