Restoring historical sites of Pakistan

Restoring historical Places of pakistan

Historical Sites of Pakistan:

The best way to honor the past is to preserve it. That is what several important buildings and sites may speak today.Pakistan is very rich in its cultural heritage. It is interesting to note that the national monuments of Pakistan are primarily restricted to sites and buildings which identify with the leaders or event of the partition.Four Provinces of Pakistan has its own historical places specially,Lahore is referred to as the cultural heart of Punjab.our country is endowed with a large number of ancient sites and historic structures. These historic assets are our link with our past and, as the custodians, it is incumbent upon all Pakistanis to stabilize and conserve them so that they could survive for many centuries more These are names of historical places of Pakistan:

Multan Fort

Lahore Fort

Hiran Minar in Sheikhupura, Wazir kahan Mosque in Lahore,Jehangir Kothari Parade in Karachi, Rohtas Fort in Jehlum,Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, lahore Fort(Shahi Qila) lahore, Minar-e- Pakistn in Lahore, Tomb of Jehangir in lahore, Tomb of queen Noor jehangir in Lahore, quen Victoria house, Taxila, Ketas Temple( Kallar Kahar), Shalimar Garden in Lahore, Old anarkali food Street in Lahore, Mohen-jo-daro, Harrapa, Rawat Fort, Pharwala Fort , Balahisar fort in Peshawar,Kot diji fort in Sindh, Thar, Multan Fort in Multan, Derawar Fort near Rrawalpindi etc. These all sites attract the visitors  towards itself and convey the symbols of ancient people,their culture and their life styles. 

wazir khan Mosque

Badshahi Mosque

Historical Places of Lahore:

Lahore has many historical places and known as" Heart Of Pakistan"and reffered to cultural heart of Punjab. the famous historical places of Lahore are:
Lahore Fort:

Lahore Fort

As the name suggests, this fort is situated in the city of Lahore – in fact, it is one of the prized buildings of the walled-city of Lahore or Old Lahore. Although the origins of the fort are older, the present structure is said to have been built by the Mughal emperor Akbar. The Fort itself acted as a geo-strategic site that met Kashmir, the Afghan areas, and Multan. Decorated with Mughal architecture, the Fort complex includes such architectural marvels as Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Mirrors) and Badshahi Mosque.

Shalimar Garden:

Shalimar Garde

It Built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, the Shalamar Bagh is one of the most beautiful sites in Pakistan. Its gardens and refreshing fountains attract a large number of visitors. The site consists of three levels of garden terraces which were watered by a canal; which also waters the exquisite marble terrace. It has a total of 410 fountains at all levels and a large variety of fruit trees.

Gates of Lahore:
Instead of these there are thirteen gates in Lahore in which twelve are proper gates and one is narrow passing gate and he names of these Gates are:

Taxali Gate


Akari Gate, Bhati Gate, Dahli Gate, Kashmiri gat, Lahori gate, Masti Gate, Mochi Gate, Mori gate, Roshnai gate, Shairanwala Gate, Sha Almi Gate, Taxali Gate, Yaki Gate.Although Pakistan is rich in her cultural heritage but unfortunately the present condition of these site is very bad and decreasing their importance day by day.It is not only a fault of Government but our negligence towards our heritage. 

Bhatti gate - The area of bhatti gate is popular for the food stuff its entrance is from west walled city of Lahore. Data Darbar or Data mausoleum is located outside the gate.

Delhi gate - Delhi had great importance because it was the only way that connected Lahore to Delhi in the past times.

Kashmiri gate - Kashmiri gate is named as Kashmiri because it is directed towards the Kashmir. This gate contains Kashmiri bazaar and a girl's college.

Lohari gate - Lohari gate is located adjacent to the Bhatti gate, lots of stalls and shops are surrounding the Lohari gate. Lohari gate (English: Blacksmith's gate) has lots of Blacksmith's shops outside it.

Roshnai gate - Roshni gate (The gate of light) was the main city gate it was lit by so many lights and that is why it is named as Roshnai gate. This gate is still in its original shape and structure.

Shairanwala gate - Shairanwala gate or Lion's gate as in Urdu Shair means Lion. This gate was built by the Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Two lions were kept in the cage to warn any offender.

Following gates no longer exists:
Akbari gate - This gate is named on the name Akbar who was the Mughal emperor. Akbar established a market near to akbari gate known as "Akbari Mandi".

Masti gate - Mast gate is located behind the Lahore fort. This gate contains lots of shoe shops these shops has a great variety of traditional and western shoes. This gate is also important because it has the oldest Masjid, Masjid of Mariyam Zamani Begum.

Mochi gate - Mochi gate is the entrance of Mochi bagh. There are two stories regarding Mochi gate one is that, due to the cobbler shops this gate was named as Mochi because in Urdu mochi means Cobbler while the other story is that there was a guard of the gate named Moti and later on this name was distorted by the people and became Mochi from Moti. Mochi gatecontains shops of dry fruits, firworks and kites.

Mori gate - This gate is located in between the Bhatti gate and Lohari gate. This gate is the smallest gate among rest of 12 gates. This gate was served to remove liter and waste from the old city Lahore.

Shahalmi gate - Shahlami gate was named on the mane of the son of Aurangzeb who was the Mughal emperor. After the death of Aurangzeb son Shah Alam this gate was called as Bherwala gate. Currently this gate does not exist only the name is remained because during the independence period this gate was destroyed. Currently there is a market close to the site of this gate, name as Shah Alam market.

Tixali gate - Tixali gate or Tixal was constructed during Mughal era. A popular market Sheikhopuriyan Bazar is located at this gate. This contains great importance regarding its food spots such as Phajjay k paye, Taj mehal and Shahab ud din Halwai and others.

Yakki gate - Yakki gate was named on the name of the great martyr "Zakki". Yakki is the damaged and distorted form of the name Zakki.
 These Gates also describe the history but due to over population, negligence towards these gates are creating threatening condition to existed historical places.

Historical places of Sindh:  

Mohen-jo- daro, Kot diji Fort and thatta Makhli graveyard famous historical places are situated in Sindh.

Mohen-jo-daro:

Mohen-jo-daro

        
Mohen-jo-daro, discovered in 1922, is situated on the West Bank of the river Indus. It has one of the earliest and the most developed urban civilizations of ancient world. It forms a part of the Indus River civilization and was discovered in 1921. It is located 1287.48 km away from Mohen-jo-daro. The Indus River civilization flourished from somewhere third till the middle of second millennium B.C. before it vanquished from the world.
But unfortunately due to constructions of mega projects like dames this place has lost its many components.

Kot diji fort:

Kot Diji Fort

Kot Diji is situated between Ranipur and Khairpur on the highway from Hyderabad, at the east bank of the Indus close to Rohri. The discovery of Kot Diji provides the evidence that there is a civilization before Mohen-jo-daro. Archaeologists say that the discovery of this pre-historic site has furnished information of high significance since it pushed back the pre-historic of Pakistan by at least another 300 years from about 2,500 B.C. to 2,800 B.C.
but these laces have lost their importance due to negligence of Pakistan government and people of pakistan.

Historical Places in Northern Areas of Pakistan:

Baltit fort

Baltit Fort:

Baltit Fort or Balti Fort is an ancient fort in the Hunza valley in the Northern areas of Pakistan.


In former times survival of the feudal regimes of hunza was ensured by the impressiveBaltit fort, that sit on top of Karimabad. The foundations of the fort are said to date back around 700 years, but there have been rebuilds and alterations over the centuries. In the 16th century the Thummarried a princess from Baltistan who brought master Balti craftsmen to renovate the building as part of her dowry. The architectural style is a clear indication of Tibetan influence in Baltistan at the time.
But due to floods all the historical places suffered badly and lost their beauty and value.

Current condition of Historical Sites of Pakistan:  

The current condition of our historical places is very bad and threatening due to several factors 

Reasons behind destruction of historical places of Pakistan are following:

• over population
• Negligence of our government and political parties,
• creation of Mega development projects that’s lead to permanent destruction. 
• The other reason behind destruction of historical places of Pakistan is incapability to maintain cultural heritage.
• The other reason is that many politicians considered that heritage is unworthy area of spending
•  Ignoring the need whenever it is presented for grant of fund 
• Lack of technocrats, architects in Pakistan 
•  Lack of resources to maintain heritage 
• Urbanization in Lahore, Karachi and other major cities which are threatening the existed heritage. 
• Lack of strategies towards preservation of heritage 
• Need of experts in specialized fields 
• Lack of efforts of professionals related to heritage conservation fields to put effort and strong justification to preserve heritage.

These are all factors which threatened the present historical sites of Pakistan. That is why the condition of historical places is very bad and going towards destruction.

Tomb of queen Noor Jehan                                                                                           

Baltit Fort

Kitas Fort

Hiran Minar

Minar-e-Pakistan

How we can preserve our heritage? 

•  Government of Pakistan should make policies to conserve historical sites of Pakistan. 

•  Message and awareness to preserve heritage should be given through media, banners and campaigns. So that people can realize their responsibilities as citizens of Pakistanis. 

•  Government should heir technocrats and architects to conserve heritage. 

•  Activities related to tourism and cultural events can also help to aware people about heritage preservation. 

• Our government should arrange fund to spend on the conservation of heritage in addition to other funds. 

•  People of Pakistan should know the importance of their country’s heritage and make every effort to preserve it. We should clean our historical places.

So love Pakistan save Pakistan