Punjab Province, Pakistan — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Punjab Province known for?

Punjab is known as the populous and prosperous heart of Pakistan, one of the busiest and most productive parts of the Indian subcontinent. The name is old. Before the modern province, a larger Punjab existed as a province of British India, drawn up in 1849 and lasting until 1947.

The modern province of Pakistan carries the name, still among the most heavily settled and prosperous stretches of the subcontinent.

Where is Punjab Province?

Punjab is one of the larger provinces of Pakistan, set within the Indian subcontinent. Its most defining trait is how thickly it is settled, and how long it has been so. Few parts of the subcontinent carry people so densely, and the province ranks among the most populous and prosperous stretches of land in the country.

People and settlement fill it from end to end. The province is also large in its reach. It covers a broad spread of country within Pakistan, enough to make it one of the country's major territorial units.

But its extent has changed over time. The historical Punjab, the province of British India that lasted from 1849 to 1947, took in a wider territory than the present province holds. When that older province was divided, one portion passed to Pakistan and kept the name.

The boundaries of the modern province were fixed in 1970. What remains is a populous, prosperous, and sizeable province, central to Pakistan and firmly part of the wider subcontinent. Its weight in the country is measured in people and productivity more than in any single feature of the land.

What is Punjab Province like?

Punjab carries one of the oldest place-names on the Indian subcontinent. The land here is defined above all by its people. This is among the most populous and prosperous parts of the subcontinent, and that density of life shapes everything about the province, from its towns to the pace of its trade.

Urdu is the language in common use, tying the province into the wider life of Pakistan. That shared tongue links Punjab to the rest of the country. The name itself has very deep roots.

Long before the modern boundaries, the Punjab was a single broad region of the subcontinent, and the province of British India that bore the name, from 1849 to 1947, kept that older identity alive across a wide territory. Division split the region, but the name and much of its character stayed. The Punjab of Pakistan still holds that inheritance.

It remains a heavily settled province where the weight of numbers and long habitation give the place its character. Culture here is a culture of many people living close together on long-worked ground. It is less about a single monument than about the sheer human density of the province.

What is the history of Punjab Province?

Punjab traces its name to a province far older than the modern one. The roots run deep. Under British India, a province called Punjab was established in 1849 and lasted until 1947, covering a broad territory across the subcontinent.

When that older province was divided, one part became the Punjab of Pakistan, which took its present form in 1970.

What is the climate of Punjab Province?

Punjab has a subtropical climate with strongly marked seasons. Summers are long and hot. The heat builds through the middle of the year across the whole province, and the cooler winter months bring a real change of season to this part of the subcontinent.

Spring and autumn are short. It is a land of hot summers and mild winters rather than an even climate.

How do you get to Punjab Province?

Punjab is one of the most accessible parts of Pakistan. It is reached overland from across the country and from beyond its borders, and its long-settled place on the Indian subcontinent put it on major routes many centuries ago. Roads and railways cross the province in every direction.

Most travellers arrive by land or by air into one of its cities. Getting here is rarely the hard part.