Kashmir' lyrics are about a desert road trip, not the region.

They’re not about Kashmir. Robert Plant wrote the lyrics after driving through the Moroccan Sahara, not the Himalayan region. The title came later because “Sahara” didn’t sound as exotic to him.

The song is about the feeling of being lost in a vast, empty landscape—the heat, the isolation, the endless road. Plant said he wanted a word that invoked the mystery of the East, and “Kashmir” fit the mood.

It’s a classic case of a name chosen for its sound, not its geography. The song is a travel diary from North Africa dressed in a borrowed title.

The desert does that to you. Makes you reach for something that sounds grand enough.