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Tag: Pakistan

Looking down (#47 in series: on Pakistan’s Hunza River)

 

The photo above looks down from Atilt Fort’s ramparts to the Hunza River.

Discover more here; more than one thousand years old, the now well-restored fort is the oldest “monument” in Hunza.

The Hunza River is part of the Indus River’s catchment.

Wherever one looks in the Hunza Valley, the vistas are almost unimaginably “epic”.

Among viewpoints that are easily-reached, those on the lower of the Hunza Valley’s almost-parallel rims are especially stupendous, particularly when no clouds obscure any part of its higher rim…and the most colossal of the mountains which tower above it.

At 7,778 metres, Rakaposhi’s is “only” this planet’s 27th highest-altitude peak.

However, as its Wikipedia entry declares:

The mountain is extremely broad, measuring almost 20 kilometres (12 mi) from east to west. It is the only peak on earth that descends directly and without interruption for almost 6,000 meters from its summit to its base.

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Looking down (#46 in series: on Pakistan’s Shyok River)

 

Arguably, the world’s most dramatic alpine scenery is in northern Pakistan.

Distinct from the Himalaya-proper, the Karakoram includes the world’s second highest mountain, plus many other peaks which are handsomely more spectacular/imposing than is Everest.

The Karakoram’s rivers are incredibly dynamic, constantly reshaping their valleys.

Essential to human life in this very demanding environment, these rivers also kill people and destroy many man-made structures..

Above and below, you are looking at the Shyok River, several kilometres upstream of its confluence with the Indus.

The Indus drains almost literally all of Pakistan.

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Looking down (#40 in series: on one of the darkest & fastest of its kind)

 

 

The featured image was not shot in monochrome.

Its colour palette is accurate; if my camera had looked straight up rather than almost straight down, the image would have largely been blue, flecked with white and grey.

I took the photo in a “remote” part of northern Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan province in May 2024.

What appears to be a rock is a rock; I have no idea of its mass, but am sure it would weigh at least several tonnes.

In the context of the relevant valley, however, that rock is a speck!

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Signage & Signification (#9 in series: after “an exertion of fraternal aid”)

 

On 14 May 2024 we enjoyed an unforgettably delicious meal at an Afghan restaurant in Pakistan’s capital city.

You are looking at the sign in front of it, in Islamabad.

Sometimes a sign “tells” an already well-informed viewer something significant that is not stated directly.

Consider the establishment’s opening date.

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Signage & Signification (#8 in series: even more unappetising, in “translation”)

A surprisingly large number of Pakistani citizens have a good grasp of English; we enjoyed more than a few mutually-intelligible and rewarding conversations with complete strangers during our visit in 2024

Presumably, the proprietor of the pictured fruit juice stand does not have such a grasp!

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“Old city, Lahore”, (#36 in series: Badshahi Mosque “3”)

 

Following its completion in 1673, Lahore’s Badshahi Mosque remained the world’s biggest mosque/masjid for nearly three centuries.

Size-wise, it is now #3 in Pakistan.

Globally, it sits at the lower end of the “top 20”, or has recently lost that status.

Aesthetically, however, Badshahi Mosque is forever unlikely to have more than a very few peers.

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“Old city”, Lahore (#35 in series: Badshahi Mosque “2”)

 

 

The featured image (immediately above) was taken at 3.47 pm on 12 May 2024; the main building was behind me, as I looked east-ish, across part of Badshahi Mosque’s courtyard.

That paved courtyard’s 25,600 square metres account for most of the mosque’s “footprint”.

Lahore Fort and Badshahi Mosque are almost adjacent.

Their main gates face each other, respectively, from the eastern and western sides of the Hazuri Bagh – a formerly-“royal” garden which is now a well-loved “public” space.

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“Old city”, Lahore (#34 in series: Badshahi Mosque “1”)

 

You are looking at Pakistan’s most “emblematic” building.

At the time of its astonishingly swift construction, Lahore’s Badshahi Mosque (“Badshahi Masjid”, to locals) was the world’s largest mosque/masjid.

Construction began in 1671.

It opened two years later.

342 years on, the Mughal Empire’s final large-scale architectural marvel still inspires awe.

Its main building – pictured above – is the key visual presence on every Pakistan 500 rupee banknote.

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“Old city”, Lahore (#33 in series: Sheesh Mahal details…& the reason it exists)

 

 

Lahore Fort’s Sheesh Mahal and Agra’s Taj Mahal were both commissioned by the same Mughal emperor.

Each expressed – mostly, in white marble –  his abiding love for his favourite wife.

Shah Jahan (1592-1666) had three wives, but only one marriage was a “love match”.

He renamed his beloved, “Mumtaz Mahal” – “the exalted one of the palace”.

Allegedly, Mumtaz Mahal had a dream/vision of heaven; the Sheesh Mahal was her husband’s attempt to make that dream “real”.

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