About Pakistan

A Brief History of Pakistan

Pakistan is a country in Southern Asia that lies on the Indian sub-continent. The capital is Islamabad. Pakistan borders to India, Iran, China, Afghanistan and to the Arabian Sea. The country has approximately 165 million inhabitants and therewith the country is one of the largest countries measured to population number. The major part of these inhabitants is Muslim.
The history of its people is full of color, thrill and excitement; of gallant deeds and sublime performance. It has, perhaps, witnessed more invasions than any other part of the world, absorbed more racial strains than any other region and more ideas have taken birth in the bosom of this land than elsewhere.

It was in these lands that the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the most brilliant in the annals of human history, flourished with its main centers at Moenjo Daro in Sind, Harappa in the Punjab, Kej in the Baluch territory and Judeiro Daro in the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa region. It was here that Buddhist culture blossomed and reached its zenith under the Kushans in the form of Gandhara civilization at the twin cities of Peshawar and Taxila. It was on this very soil that the Graeco-Bactrian civilization had its best flowering and left the indelible marks of finest Greek art in the Potwar plateau around Rawalpindi. The entire Baluchistan is strewn with the remains of the earliest products of man’s activities. “Pakistan is a region which has been conspicuously important in the development of civilization.

In our present state of knowledge, we may regard the period of the Indus Valley culture as the first epoch in the history of civilization in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent. The second epoch is the period when the Aryan entered through the passes of the north-west at a time assumed to be about 1500- 1200 B.C. and possessed the culture of the Rig Veda, which is the first and most important book of the early Indo-Aryans and was probably compiled by 1000 B.C.

Of the two river systems that of the Indus, now mainly in Pakistan, had the earliest civilization and gave its name to India. The fertile plains of the Punjab watered by the five great tributaries of the Indus had a high culture over two thousand years before Christ, which spread down the lower course of the Indus as far as the sea.

The society and culture of Pakistan is comprised of numerous ethnic groups: the Punjabis, Kashmiris, Sindhis in east, Muhajirs, Makrani in the south; Baloch and Pashtun in the west; and the ancient Dardic, Wakhi, Baltistani and Burusho communities in the north. The culture of these Pakistani ethnic groups have been greatly influenced by many of its neighbors, such as the other South Asians, Turkic peoples as well as the peoples of Central Asia and the Middle East. In nutshell, Pakistan has inherited a rich cultural heritage from its history which is as old as 7000-9000 years. The imprints left by successive civilizations are marked with rich traditions, festivals, folklores, folkdances, music, dresses, costumes, cuisines and handicrafts.

Timeline of Pakistan History (1,600,000 BC – 1947 AD)

BC

• 2,000,000 BC: In Riwat, dating at this period, stones implementations (tools) have been found at the site, proposing a possibility of earlier homo erectus existence

List of mountains in Pakistan

Pakistan is home to 108 peaks above 7,000 metres. ^[1] and probably as many peaks above 6,000 m. There is no count of the peaks above 5,000 and 4,000 m. Five of the 14 highest independent peaks in the world (the eight-thousanders) are in Pakistan (four of which lie in the surroundings of Concordia; the confluence of Baltoro Glacier and Godwin Austen Glacier). Most of the highest peaks in Pakistan lie in the Karakoram mountain range (which lies almost entirely in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan, and is considered to be a part of the greater Himalayan range) but some peaks above 7,000 m are included in the Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges.

Geographical distribution[edit]

Most of the highest mountains in Pakistan are located in the Karakoram range (the highest of which is K2, globally ranked 2nd, 8611m), some high mountains are in Himalaya(the highest of which is Nanga Parbat, globally ranked 9th, 8126 m) and Hindu Kush (the highest of which is Tirich Mir, globally ranked 33rd, 7708 m).

The locations of the highest mountains are shown on the composite satellite image of Karakoram and Hindu Kush below. The numbers refer to the global ranking in this "List of highest mountains". For clarity, lower peaks with labels overlapping higher peaks are left out of the main image.