Where to Stay in Faisalabad, Punjab Province

What is Faisalabad known for?

On the flat canal plain of central Punjab, it grew from a colonial market town called Lyallpur into a great city of cotton mills, and it keeps the tall clock tower at its heart, the eight old bazaars that run out from it like spokes, the humming looms and mills of the textile trade, and the wide farmland of the canal colony around. Around the mills the canal farmland lies dead level to the horizon. Looms clatter through the night.

What are the main landmarks in Faisalabad?

The clock tower is the mark of Faisalabad. The tall British tower at the center of the old city, ringed by eight bazaars that fan out like the arms of a flag, rises over the crowds, the emblem of the town, downtown. A fountain marks the heart.

The old Gumti pavilion and fountain stand by the tower, while the eight bazaars, the Lyallpur Museum, and the cotton mills mark the country around Faisalabad.

What is the history of Faisalabad?

Faisalabad was built by the canals. When the British dug great canals across the dry Punjab plain, they laid out a new market town in the eighteen-nineties and named it Lyallpur, planning its streets around a clock tower with eight bazaars fanning out. The plan was drawn like a flag.

The eight roads spread from the tower in the pattern of the Union Jack, and farmers of the new canal colony came to trade their cotton and grain in the young town. Cotton made the city grow. Mills and looms rose across the town, spinning and weaving the cotton of the canal lands, and Lyallpur swelled into one of the largest cities of Pakistan.

It took a king's name. After independence the city was renamed Faisalabad for a friendly king, and it grew on textiles, farming, and trade, keeping its clock tower, its bazaars, and its mills. The looms still run day and night.

Faisalabad keeps its tower and its bazaars on the Punjab plain.

Where is Faisalabad?

Faisalabad lies in the center of Punjab, on the flat plain between the Chenab and Ravi rivers in eastern Pakistan. The city sits on a dry, level tableland turned green by canals, in the heart of the great cotton belt, with farmland stretching flat in every direction and the two rivers running far off on either side. The plain runs dead level.

Canals thread the fields.

What is the climate of Faisalabad?

Faisalabad has a hot, dry semi-arid climate. Scorching summers and mild winters cross the plain, with fierce heat and dust before the monsoon and cool nights in the short winter. The summer sun is savage.

Winter brings cool grey days.

How do you get to Faisalabad?

Faisalabad lies in central Punjab, on the road and rail between Lahore and Multan. The motorway and trains run to it across the plain from Lahore, and roads spread out to the canal towns and the farms. Trains cross the fields.

Lahore lies east over the plain.