Islamabad

Landscape of Islamabad

Margalla Hills

12,605 hectares of national park along the city's northern edge.

Sector grid

A planned city of numbered sectors, each with its own market.

Potohar plateau

The dry, fossil-rich uplands surrounding the capital.

Rivers and lakes of Islamabad

Rawal Lake

Reservoir of 8.8 km², built in the 1960s for the city's water.

Simly Dam

Fed by the Soan river from the Murree hills.

Margalla streams

Seasonal nullahs that run hard through the monsoon.

Food of Islamabad

Saidpur village

Restored Mughal-era village turned into a food street.

Melody and Aabpara

Old-sector markets for chaat, halwa puri and kebab.

Hill-top dining

Daman-e-Koh and Pir Sohawa look out over the whole grid.

Heritage of Islamabad

Faisal Mosque

Completed 1986; tent-shaped hall under four 79 m minarets.

Pakistan Monument

Four granite petals for the four provinces, opened 2007.

Lok Virsa

The national folk heritage museum in Shakarparian.

Culture and crafts of Islamabad

Truck art

Hand-painted trucks and rickshaws, a craft trade worth millions of rupees a year.

Bazaars

Copper, cloth, spice and book markets in every old city.

Festivals

Basant, Urs gatherings, Shandur polo and the Kalash calendar.

Wildlife of Islamabad

Markhor

The national animal, a wild goat of the northern ranges.

Snow leopard

Roughly 200–420 remain in the Karakoram, Himalaya and Hindu Kush.

Houbara bustard

A winter migrant to the deserts of Balochistan and Cholistan.

Main cities and places in Islamabad

Each one opens its own page: its story, rivers and lakes, food, heritage, culture, wildlife and what to see.

Islamabad

City

1. 1947–1971
   Independence & early years

   Partition displaced 14 million people — the largest migration in human history. Karachi served as Pakistan's first capital until Islamabad was inaugurated (1967). The 1965 Indo-Pak war was fought largely across the Punjab plains. In 1971, East Pakistan became Bangladesh.

2. 1971 – today
   Modern Pakistan

   The Karakoram Highway (opened 1978) connected Gilgit-Baltistan to China via the Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 m — the highest paved border crossing on Earth. Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in 1998 at Chagai (Balochistan). Today Pakistan is the world's fifth most populous country with 240 million people.

No photographs published from Islamabad yet.

Questions about Islamabad