RE: Exploring Old Pokhara, A City in the Foothills of the Himalayas

Partly true. It's a mountainous part of Nepal, so Pokhara is several hundreds meters higher than the plains. But for the mountainous part, Pokhara has a low altitude because it's located in a valley. And only for that reason it can host more than a half million people. Kathmandu valley (the capital, with almost 1 million people) is even more impressive:

A natural fortress, a huge one!