Islamabad

Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan, a planned city on the Potohar Plateau at the foot of the Margalla Hills. It was built in the 1960s to replace Karachi as the capital, and its name means the city of Islam.

The government chose the site in 1959 for its mild climate and its place near Rawalpindi, which served as a temporary capital while Islamabad was built. The Greek architect and planner Constantinos Doxiadis drew the master plan, dividing the city into square sectors named with letters and numbers, each with its own markets, schools and green belts. Every sector is split into smaller parts around a central market called a markaz. The first sectors were finished in the 1960s, and the city grew toward the southwest along the main avenues.

Rawalpindi, the older neighboring city, keeps the wholesale markets and workshops that supply the capital. The master plan of Islamabad set aside a separate sector in the south for light industry, away from the homes and offices.

The Faisal Mosque, designed by the Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay and finished in 1986, has a prayer hall shaped like a Bedouin tent with four tall minarets. The Pakistan Monument, built in the shape of a flower with granite petals, stands on a hill in the west of the city. Lok Virsa, the national museum of folk heritage, shows the costumes, music and crafts of the provinces. Margalla Hills National Park has hiking trails that climb from the edge of the city to a viewpoint over the sectors below.