Saiful Muluk is a mountainous lake in northern Pakistan, located at the northern end of the Kaghan Valley, near the town of Naran in the Saiful Muluk National Park. At an elevation of 3,224 m (10,578 feet) above sea level, the lake is located above the tree line, and is one of the highest lakes in Pakistan.

Location

Saiful Muluk is located in the Mansehra district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about 9 km north of Naran, in the northern part of Kaghan Valley. Malika Parbat, the highest peak in the valley is near the lake. The lake is accessible from the nearby town of Naran during the summer season but access during winter is limited, as heavy snowfall and landslides threaten to cutoff the lake from other regions.

Physical features

Saiful Muluk was formed by glacial moraines that blocked the water of the stream passing through the valley. The Kaghan Valley was formed in the greater Pleistocene Period dating back almost 300,000 years when the area was covered with ice. Rising temperatures and receding glaciers left a large depression where glaciers once stood. Melting water collected into the lake.

Ecology

The lake has rich eco-diversity and holds many species of blue-green algae. Large brown trout are found in the lake, up to about seven kilograms. About 26 species of vascular plant exist in the area, with Asteraceae the most commonly found species. Other species commonly found in the region are: Ranunculaceae, Compositae, Cruciferae, Gramineae, Apiaceae, Leguminosae, Scrophulariaceae and Polygonaceae.

Folklore

The Lake Saiful Muluk is named after a legendary prince. A fairy tale called Saiful Muluk, later on turnt into poem form by the Sufi poet Mian Muhammad Bakhsh. It tells the story of the Egyptian Prince Saiful Malook who fell in love with a fairy princess named Princess Badri-ul-Jamala at the lake. The Story of Prince Saiful Maluk is an Arabic fable, a story of love between a prince and a fairy. It is considered a later addition to the One Thousand and One Nights collection of Arabic fables. In South Asia, the story was put into Punjabi verse by 19th-century poet and mystic Mian Muhammad Bakhsh. It has also been retold in numerous languages such as Balochi, Bengali, English, Urdu and Punjabi. According to the folklore, Saiful Maluk was a prince of Egypt. He had significant wealth which he had inherited from his forefathers. Inscribed on the treasure were two seals; one bearing the image of Saiful Muluk and the other one being that of Badi-ul-Jamala. One night, Prince Saiful Maluk saw in a dream, a lake and a fairy. He got up and went to tell his dream to his father, asking him about the place and the fairy. His father told him that he can't meet the fairy as she isn't human, unlike him. However, the longer the prince recollected his dream, the more he was overwhelmed with love for the fairy.

Gallery

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