Lekhnath

Lekhnath was a municipality in Kaski District in the Gandaki Province of northern-central Nepal, about 180 kilometres west of Kathmandu, and it has since been merged into Pokhara to form the Pokhara metropolis. Before the merger it occupied the eastern half of the Pokhara Valley and had eighteen wards. It took its name from the Nepali poet Lekhnath Paudyal, who was born in its ward number six, and was called the garden city of seven lakes: Begnas, Rupa, Khaste, Depang, Maidi, Neureni and Gunde. The 2011 census counted 71,434 people, of whom 86 percent were Hindu and 8 percent Buddhist. Hiking routes with views of the Annapurna range, Machhapuchhre and Dhaulagiri, and a community radio station on 106.6 MHz, are among its features.