Gilgit is the capital city of the Northern Areas, Pakistan. Its ancient name was Sargin which later on came to be known as Gilit. Sikh and Dogra conquerors gave it name of Gilgit. It is the headquarters of Gilgit District. The region lies on the foothills of the Karakoram mountains, and has an average altitude of 5,000 ft (1,500 m). It is drained by the Indus River, which rises in the neighbouring regions of Ladakh and Baltistan.

Gilgit Agency was the name of most of the area of northern Kashmir which formed a de facto dependency of Pakistan from 1947 to 1970, which was then merged into Northern Areas. The Agency was administered directly from Islamabad separately from the neighbouring state of Azad Kashmir and the princely states of Hunza and Nagar. The area of the Agency comprised the traditional region of Gilgit and most of the region of Baltistan. The Agency also bordered the Sinkiang region of China to the northeast, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir to the south, and the North-West Frontier Province to the west. Both India and Pakistan recognise the regions of Gilgit and Baltistan as disputed and technically part of the divided State of Jammu & Kashmir.
Sayyid Ali Hamadani, a fourteenth century Persian, brought Islam to the region.