Pakistan: Regions, Cities & Travel Guide

What is Pakistan known for?

Pakistan is known as the Muslim homeland carved out of South Asia in 1947, a country at the meeting point of South, Central, and West Asia. Its cities carry much of that identity. Karachi, on the Arabian Sea, is the largest city and the financial centre, while Islamabad serves as the planned national capital.

In the 1960s the country was a fixture of the old Hippie Trail, the overland route that once drew travellers across Asia.

Where is Pakistan?

Pakistan occupies a broad stretch of South Asia, the 33rd-largest country in the world by area. The sea lies to the south. Its coast runs along the Arabian Sea, with the Gulf of Oman off the southwest and the Sir Creek marking the southeastern corner.

Beyond the water, a maritime boundary is shared with Oman across the Gulf of Oman. On land the country is ringed by neighbours. India lies to the east, Iran to the southwest, and Afghanistan along the west.

To the northeast the border meets China. In the far northwest a narrow strip of Afghanistan, the Wakhan Corridor, separates Pakistan from Tajikistan, so the two do not quite touch. The land itself changes greatly along the way from the southern coast to the far north.

The low, hot country near the Arabian Sea gives way, far inland and to the north, to the high ground along the Chinese and Afghan frontiers. Between the two, the populous middle of the country carries most of its people. From the warm southern coast to the cooler high country of the north, the land spans a long reach of terrain.

What is the history of Pakistan?

Pakistan is a young state on very old ground. For thousands of years this corner of South Asia has been a crossroads, joining Western, Central, South, and East Asia, along which peoples and trade have long moved. That long history of movement made the region a meeting ground of many cultures well before any modern border was drawn.

The modern country is recent. Pakistan was founded in 1947, conceived as a separate homeland for the Muslims of South Asia, and it took its place as an independent nation that year. Its name and its purpose date from that moment.

The decades after brought a different kind of traveller. In the 1960s the country became a well-known stop on the old Hippie Trail, the overland route that carried visitors across Asia toward the east, and tourism had its heyday then. Two cities tell part of the story.

Karachi, the great port on the Arabian Sea, grew as the commercial centre, while Islamabad was later laid out as a planned capital. The distance between them, coast to capital, still frames the country. The old crossroads and the young republic sit together.

What is Pakistan like?

Pakistan was built around a shared faith. The country was created as a homeland for the Muslims of South Asia, and Islam remains the thread that runs through public and private life across the whole nation. Urdu is the national language that ties it together.

Spoken and written as the national tongue, it carries the culture from the Arabian Sea coast to the northern borders. It is the shared voice across a broad and varied country. Yet the country is far from uniform.

Its place at the crossroads of Western, Central, South, and East Asia has layered many influences onto one another over a very long time, in food, dress, music, and custom. Karachi shows the mix at its most crowded. As the largest city and the financial centre, the port draws people from across the country into one place on the coast.

Islamabad, planned and orderly, offers a very different face of the same nation. From the southern coast to the northern highlands the ways of life shift with the land. What holds it together is faith and language rather than any single regional culture.

What is the climate of Pakistan?

Pakistan has a broadly subtropical climate, hot and largely dry. Summers are long and very hot across the lowlands. The Arabian Sea softens the heat a little along the southern coast around Karachi, where the air stays humid.

Inland and to the north the weather turns more extreme, with hotter days and cooler nights, and the high country in the far north is colder again through the winter. Much of the land is arid. Rain is uneven and often scarce.

How do you get to Pakistan?

Pakistan is reached mostly by air. Karachi, on the Arabian Sea, is the main point of arrival from overseas, and Islamabad, the planned capital in the north, is the other major entry point for international flights. By sea, the port at Karachi handles the country's shipping.

Overland routes cross the land borders, but most long-distance visitors fly. Inside the country, roads and railways link the southern coast with the interior and the far north.