Pakistan

A Treasure Trove

of Wonders!

Shrine Hazrat Shah Rukn-e-Alam

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Shrine Hazrat Shah Rukn-e-Alam

The tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam was built between 1320 and 1324, is an unmatched pre-Moghul masterpiece. The Mausoleum of Rukn-i-Alam could possibly be considered as the glory of Multan.

From whichever side the city is approached, the most prominent thing that can be seen from miles all around is a huge dome. This dome is the Shrine of the saint. Besides its religious importance, the mausoleum is also of considerable archaeological value as its dome is reputed to be the second largest in the world. The mausoleum is built entirely of red brick, bounded with beams of shisham wood, which have now turned black after so many centuries. The whole of the exterior is elaborately ornamented with glazed tile panels, string-courses and battlements. Colors used are dark blue, azure, and white, contrasted with the deep red of the finely polished bricks.

The mausoleum of Rukn-e-Alam has been admired by not only the travelers and chroniclers but also by the art-historians and archaeologist who wrote the architectural history of the subcontinent.

In the 1970s the mausoleum was thoroughly repaired and renovated by the Auqaf Department of the Punjab Government. The entire glittering glazed interior is the result of new tiles and brickwork done by the Kashigars of Multan[1].

The mysterious Indus Valley

The mysterious Indus Valley The greater Indus region was home to the

largest of the four ancient urban civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, South Asia and China. It was not discovered until the 1920's. Most of its ruins, even its major cities, remain to be excavated. The ancient Indus Civilization script has not been deciphered.

Many questions about the Indus people who created this highly complex culture remain unanswered, but other aspects of their society can be answered through various types of archaeological studies.

Harappa was a city in the Indus civilization that flourished around 2600 to 1700 BCE in the western part of South Asia

Janam Asthan Nankana Sahib

Janam Asthan Nankana Sahib

Nankana Sahib is named after Guru Nanak

(1469-1539), the founder of the Sikh Faith. Guru

Nanak was born here on Baisakh sudi 3, 1526 Bk/

15 April 1469. Nankana town is part of Nankana

Sahib District in the Punjab province, adjacent to

Sheikhupura district. The specialty of this shrine is

that within its walls are numerous other shrines

commemorating other aspects of the Nanak’s life

The Shandur Pass in Chitral Valley

The Shandur Pass in Chitral Valley Shandur Top (el. 12,200 feet (3,700 m)) is a high mountain pass

that connects Chitral to the Gilgit in Pakistan. At Shandur, the highest polo ground in the world, a form of polo with little rules and referee, known as free-style polo is played. The roads to Shandur are mostly unpaved. 4X4 are best suited for travel. There are no hotels at Shandur. Visitors must bring their own tents. Nights can be very cold; snow can be seen on the mountains even in July. Water from the melting glaciers irrigates the greenery in the area. Everyone entering Shandur is advised to bring warm clothes and sleeping bags

The Shandur Pass is regarded as being 'half-way to Heaven', although long gone are the days in which this could refer to Heaven, as in the sense of gods caring for polo, or Hell as in the conquered soldiers who had to march through it.

The Mazar of Bibi Jawindi in Uch Sharif

The Mazar of Bibi Jawindi in Uch Sharif Uch or Uch Sharif is located in Punjab, Pakistan. Uch is also known as "Alexandria

at the Head of the Punjab", is a historical city in Pakistan. Once it was an important city of ancient India. It is believed that in 325 BC Alexander the Great founded a city called Alexandria at the site of the last confluence of Punjab rivers with the Indus river.The website of the Embassy of Pakistan, however, describes Uch as follows: " Uch Sharif, 75 km from Bahawalpur, is a very old town. It is believed that it was founded in 500 BC. Some historians believe that Uch was there even before the advent of Bikramjit when Jains and Buddhists ruled over the area. At the time of invasion by Alexander the Great, Uch was under Hindu rule." Some historians believe that Mithankot or Chacharan Sharif was the settlement of Alexandria founded by Alexander the Great.Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the city and during the Muslim period Uch was one of the centers of Islamic studies of South Asia. There are several tombs of famous mystics (Sufis) in Uch, notably the tombs of Syed Jalaluddin Bukhari and his family. These structures were joined by a series of domed tombs; the first is said to have been built for Baha’ al-Halim by his pupil, the Suharwardiya Sufi saint Jahaniyan Jahangasht (1307-1383 AD), the second for the latter’s great grant daughter, Bibi Jawindi, in CE 1494 and the third for the latter’s architect

Lahore Fort

Lahore Fort Lahore Fort is located at an eminence in the northwest corner

of the Walled City. The citadel is spread over approximately 50 acres and is trapezoidal in form. Although the origin of this fort goes deep into antiquity, the present fortifications were begun by Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar. There is evidence that a mud fort was in existence here in 1021, when Mahmud of Ghazni invaded this area. Akbar demolished the old mud fort and constructed most of the modern fort on the old foundations. The fort's mud construction dates back to the early Hindu period

The citadel is divided into different sections, each creating its own world within its quadrangle, but they are all interconnected for ease of administration of the fort. Some of these are :

Maidan Diwan-e-Aam (Garden of Public Audience)

Diwan-e-Aam

Daulat Khana-e-Khass-o-Aam

Makatib Khana

Haveli of Mai Jindan

Jahangir's Quadrangle

Haveli of Kharak Singh,

Mashriqi and Maghribi Iwans (East and West Chambers),

Mashriqi and Maghribi Suites

Khwabgah-e-Kalan (Bari Khwabgah)

Bangla Pavilion

Zenana Hammam

Shah Jahan's Quadrangle,

Diwan-e-Khass

Badshahi Mosque

Badshahi Mosque

The Badshahi Mosque (Urdu: بادشاھی مسجد) or the 'Emperor's Mosque' in Lahore is the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world. Epitomising the beauty, passion and grandeur of the Mughal era, it is Lahore's most famous landmark and a major tourist attraction.

Capable of accommodating 10,000 worshippers in its main prayer hall and a further 100,000 in its courtyard and porticoes, it remained the largest mosque in the world from 1673 to 1986 (a period of 313 years), when overtaken in size by the completion of the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. Today, it remains the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world after the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca, the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina, the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca and the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad.

Gandharan in Takshashila

Gandharan in Takshashila

Gandharan in Takshashila

Takshasila was an ancient city mentioned in the epic Ramayana, now known as Taxila in Pakistan. As per the epic this city was named after Taksha the son of Bharata the brother of Raghava Rama (who was the king of Kosala). Bharata defeated the Gandharas and built the city of Takshasila in Gandhara. In Mahabharata, this city is mentioned as a city defeated by Kuru king Janamejaya

Emperor Janamejaya was the son of Maharaja Parikshit and great-grandson of Arjuna the valiant warrior hero of the Mahābhārata epic. He took up the Kuru throne following the death of his father...

. It was the city where the Naga Takshaka, the enemy of Janamejaya lived. Here Janamejaya conducted a massacre of Nagas which he called the Sarpasatra. This city in modern times, is known as Taxila, in Pakistan

Gandharan in Takshashila

Makli Necropolis One of the largest necropolises in the world, with a diameter

of approximately 8 kilometers, Makli Hill is supposed to be the burial place of some 125,000 Sufi saints. It is located on the outskirts of Thatta, the capital of lower Sind until the seventeenth century, in what is the southeastern province of present-day Pakistan. [1]

Legends abound about its inception, but it is generally believed that the cemetery grew around the shrine of the fourteenth-century Sufi, Hamad Jamali. The tombs and gravestones spread over the cemetery are material documents marking the social and political history of Sind

Makli Necropolis

Makli Necropolis Imperial mausoleums are divided into two major groups, those from

the Samma (1352–1520) and Tarkhan (1556–1592) periods. The tomb of the Samma king, Jam Nizamuddin II (reigned 1461–1509), is an impressive square structure built of sandstone and decorated with floral and geometric medallions. Similar to this is the mausoleum of Isa Khan Tarkhan II (d. 1651), a two-story stone building with majestic cupolas and balconies. In contrast to the syncretic architecture of these two monuments, which integrate Hindu and Islamic motifs, are mausoleums that clearly show the Central Asian roots of the later dynasty. An example is the tomb of Jan Beg Tarkhan (d. 1600), a typical octagonal brick structure whose dome is covered in blue and turquoise glazed tiles. Today, Makli Hill is a United Nations World Heritage Site that is visited by both pilgrims and tourists.

Makli Necropolis

Faisal Mosque

The Faisal Mosque in Islamabad is the largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the sixth largest mosque in the world. It was the largest mosque in the world from 1986 to 1993 when overtaken in size by the completion of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. Subsequent expansions of the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca and the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi(Prophet's Mosque) in Medina, Saudi Arabiaduring the 1990s relegated Faisal Mosque to fourth place in terms of size.

Faisal Mosque

Karakoram Highway

Karakoram Highway

The Karakoram Highway (KKH) is the highest paved international road in the world. It connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, through the Khunjerab Pass, at an altitude of 4,693 m/15,397 ft as confirmed by both SRTM and multiple GPS readings. It connects China's Xinjiang region with Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan and also serves as a popular tourist attraction. It is now part of the route officially known as as N-35 within Pakistan. Due to its high elevation and the difficult conditions in which it was constructed, it is also referred to as the "Ninth Wonder of the World

Karakoram Highway

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