Karachi

Karachi is the capital of the Sindh province of Pakistan, a port city on the Arabian Sea west of the Indus delta. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was born in the city.

A fishing village called Kolachi stood on the shore when Hindu merchants built a small walled trading town there in 1729. It came under British rule in the 1840s, and the British dredged the harbor and built railways and wharves that made it the main port of northwestern India. Frere Hall, a Venetian Gothic hall of the 1860s, and the Empress Market, with its clock tower, date from those decades. When Pakistan became independent in 1947, Karachi was its first capital, and it kept that role until the government moved north in the following decade. Abdul Sattar Edhi set up his ambulance service and welfare foundation in the city, and it grew into a national network.

The Port of Karachi and Port Qasim, east of the city, handle most of the sea trade of Pakistan. Engro, a company based in Karachi, makes fertilizers for the farms of the country. Shan Foods, also headquartered in the city, sells spice mixes for biryani, nihari and other dishes in many countries.

Mohatta Palace, a sandstone mansion built for a Hindu merchant in the 1920s, holds a museum of art and crafts. Clifton Beach, on the southern shore, draws families in the evenings for camel rides and food stalls. Burns Road, in the old city, is lined with restaurants that serve nihari, kebabs and rabri late into the night.