Leh , was the capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh, now the Leh
District in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India.
"As has already been mentioned, the original name of the town is not
sLel, as it is now-a-days spelt, but sLes, which signifies an encampment
of nomads. These [Tibetan] nomads were probably in the habit of visiting
the Leh valley at a time when it had begun to be irrigated by Dard
colonizers. Thus, the most ancient part of the ruins on the top of
rNam-rgyal-rtse-mo hill at Leh are called 'aBrog-pal-mkhar (Dard castle)
. . . ."[1]
The town is still dominated by the now ruined Leh Palace, former home of
the royal family of Ladakh, built in the same style and about the same
time as the Potala Palace. Leh is at an altitude of 3,500 meters (11,483
ft)
