Home / Regions
Regions
Pakistan runs from the Arabian Sea to the highest mountains on earth. Its four provinces and the northern territory of Gilgit-Baltistan each have their own languages, food and crafts. Pick one to see everything we have found there, town by town.
The lower Indus
Sindh is the land of the lower Indus: the river delta, the port city of Karachi, and Mohenjo-daro, one of the oldest cities in the world. Its crafts are built around cotton and colour. Block-printed ajrak, patchwork rillis, mirror embroidery and painted trucks all come from here.
Mountains, desert and coast
Pakistan’s largest province by area runs from the Arabian Sea coast at Gwadar to dry mountain ranges around Quetta. Baloch women are known for some of the densest hand embroidery in the world, and the hills are quarried for banded onyx.
The land of five rivers
Punjab is Pakistan’s most populous province, named for the five rivers that cross it. Its cities each have a trade: blue tiles and sweets in Multan, salt in the Salt Range, footballs and surgical steel in Sialkot, and leather and gold thread in Lahore’s old city.
The frontier and the Hindu Kush
From Peshawar, one of the oldest living cities in South Asia, the province climbs through Swat to Chitral under the Hindu Kush. It gave the world the Peshawari chappal, and its hospitality runs on green tea.
Explore Khyber PakhtunkhwaWhere three mountain ranges meet
The Karakoram, the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush meet in Gilgit-Baltistan, home to K2 and the Karakoram Highway. Its valleys are terraced with orchards, and Hunza’s apricots are famous across the country.