Karachi

 Karachi  

We set off through the early morning deserted streets. Despite it being winter, the temperatures in November still rises into the high 20's or low 30's degrees centigrade. That is a hot British summer but cool for Pakistan standards. And despite the temperatures, people don't get up early to enjoy the cool, but they will be out late at night  whilst it is still hot. There are colonial era buildings in and around the city centre, such as this sandstone building, a marvellous piece of architecture but falling into deacy unless it is rescued and a new use found for it.

Another magnificent 19th century building. We tried to enter the National Museum. The gates were open and despite the web site and tourist brochure said that it opened at 9am, the staff were insistent that it was a 10am opening.

We moved on to fill in some time. We stopped at the former colonial townhall, another Victorian Gothic structure.

Another view of the building. They were expecting some high ranking government official to visit, so the insides were being prepared for his visit and it was closed for the whole day. However one part was open, the public library with a separate access by the tower. 

It had shelves and rows of books like any other library. It also has some rare books and examples of early locally printed books in English, Urdu, Farsi and Arabic. Until the introduction of printing with European colonisaton, books were either imported at great cost or korand were transcirbed by hand. I was here to see the architecture but regretably, there was little ornamentation and none of the Victorian Gothic that I believed was on show upstairs in the government office areas.

There was some road kill out in the car park. Two dogs were tearing what was left apart. They were also trying to protect their share from ravenous birds who were also out for breakfast and took turns in swooping in to peck off a piece whilst the dogs were barking and snarling at other birds.

Around the corner was the Quaid-e-Azam House Museum. This was where Muhammad Jinnah lived, known as the founder of Pakistan. The front facade.

The entrance to the museum is around the back. I knew most of the story of jis life so this was to see how he lived. He was a lawyer before he became famous. Judging by his lifestyle, he was very successful.

His study...

...a reception room...

...pantry...

...dining room...

...the stairs...

...his bedroom...

...the dressing room...

...drawing room on the upper storey...

...his daughter's bedromm...

...one of his many cars, a Packard...

...and a Mercedes.

Next stop was the Masjid-e-Tooba mosque, the entrance.

The large dome of the mosque. Construction took from 1966 to 1969. 

The huge space inside under the domw with no supporting columns in the way of worshipers view of the mehrab. It claims to hold 5,000 or including the terrace 8,000 or with the gardens, 30,000.

The mehrab.

After viewing the Masjid-e-Tooba, we went back to the National Museum. This time we were welcomed with open arms. It houses an extensive display of prehistoric and Indus civilisation artefacts, statues, korans, ethnographic displays, more details about muhammad Jinnah and the move to independence and Islamic art. It was noisy in the last few exhibition halls as there was a school trip taking place.

And their school bus looked nothing like my school bus when we went on field trips.
                                        

We had a look at Muhammad Jinnah's tomb. He died in 1948 but the tomb ws constructed 1960 - 71.

                                        
Visitors are not allowed into the tomb but can visit the museum behind the tomb and can see other tombs of notable people such as the tombs of his sister and the first prime minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan who served from 1947 until his assassination in 1951.

Last stop of the day was at the Empress Market. It is housed in a Victorian Gothic purpose built building completed in 1889.

A detal of the main tower...

...and a view one one of the wings stretching away from the main tower...

...inside was a colourful and noisy market place, with dozens of stallhollders selling their wares, mostly vegetables, fruits, dried fruit, nuts and meat. This is fresh coconut oil being extracted with chopped up coconut flesh going into the hopper at the top, draining off oil to the left and the crushed and dry coconut flesh falling into the tray below.

Other colourful sights in the market...

...unusual fruits...

...plus nuts, dates and further along, tomatoes and other fruit and vegetables.