WATCH: 1200 Years Old Christian Cross Found In Gilgit-Baltistan

An expedition team from the University of Baltistan in Skardu discovered a large marble cross high in the Kavardo mountain range in Baltistan.

The team, led by vice-chancellor Muhammad Naeem Khan together with the director of academics Zakir Hussain Zakir and director of external links Ishtiaq Hussain Maqpoon, visited the site to study the discovery accompanied by local villagers and mountain guides.

According to initial estimates, the cross is believed to be around 1,000 to 1,200 years old. Khan reported the finding of the cross as if “it descended on Karakarom directly from the sky.”

In the opinion of researcher Wajid Bhatti, it is a Thomanian cross and one of the most prominent crosses ever discovered in the Indian subcontinent.

“It is indeed important news for all of us that an ancient cross was found in Skardu. It shows that Christianity used to exist in this area, and there must be a church and houses of Christians. There are presently no Christian families in that area, but they were once present,” said Mansha Noor, executive director of Caritas Pakistan.

The town of Skardu, which today links Pakistan to China, was once on the Silk Road. It is, therefore, possible, according to Béatrice Caseau, a teacher of Byzantine history at Sorbonne University, that “Christianity was brought to this mountainous region by Christian merchants from the Middle East.”

“Even if we lack the sources to know with certainty where they passed, we know that Christians from the Persian world, using the Syriac language, came to the Indus region between the 5th and 8th centuries, until the arrival of Islam,” continues Béatrice Caseau.

The University of Baltistan also intends to reach out to North American and European universities, and develop academic linkages with local historians, to find out the exact date of cross carving from a rock boulder and scientifically describe the details of this rock.