The easternmost and longest of the five rivers of the Punjab, an antecedent river that rises near Lake Rakshastal in Tibet, enters India at Shipki La in Himachal Pradesh, flows through Punjab and joins the Chenab in Pakistan to form the Panjnad before reaching the Indus.
The Sutlej is one of the few rivers that cuts straight across the Great Himalaya. Rising in the arid Tibetan plateau near Rakshastal and Mount Kailash, it flows west through a deep canyon in the Zanda region and enters India at Shipki La. Like the Indus and the Brahmaputra, it is older than the mountains it crosses, maintaining its course by cutting down as the ranges rose. In Kinnaur and Shimla districts it runs through narrow gorges with steep slopes, and it then turns south-west past Rampur and Bilaspur before leaving the hills near Nangal and Ropar.
In the plains of Punjab it is joined by the Beas at Harike, where a barrage and a large wetland have formed. The combined river forms part of the India–Pakistan border near Ferozepur before entering Pakistan, where it meets the Chenab (which has already received the Jhelum and Ravi) at the Panjnad, and then the Indus. The Sutlej valley has a long human history: the Harappan site of Ropar lies on its bank, and its middle course was an important trade route between India and Tibet through Shipki La.
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