Touring in Pakistan

We finally got to go to a new city! Earlier this May, we visited friends we worked with in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We flew up in the morning, did Sunday Brunch at the Islamabaad Club and did a tour around the city. Islamabaad is the capital of Pakistan and has the third largest mosque in the world. Faisal Mosque was a gift to Pakistan from King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. Unlike the number one and two largest mosques in the world (Mecca and Medina), we got to go inside and visit.

This shows part of the open area of the mosque. The white paths are white marble and are very nice. Since you have to walk around in socks or barefooted, knowing where the cool, white marble walkways are is important.

This is part of the interior domed area. It is basically just a large, open area for prayer and was nicely decorated.

Here we are at a local lake / National Park. Alonda was wearing the traditional Pakistani shawaal kamiz (spelling varies!).

This is the seat of government for the country. There is a large lake behind it (we visited it, too) and the row of white buildings are the two houses of Congress, the President's House and the Supreme Court building. They are all next to each other along Constitution Avenue.

Here is another view looking down at Faisal Mosque from the hill. The mosque is quite unusual in that it has so many corners. The vast majority of mosques are built in a domed / rounded form.

At the large lake behind the government building, we saw lots of people out for a ride on the lake.

In March, we had a couple of visitors from the US and we showed them a few things here in Karachi. We took them to the local Pakistani Air Force Museum. Jim was the only person who had to pay the RS 25 fee (about $.30). Everyone else was over 60 and got in for free.

You can see from this general view that there was a lot to see. The museum has been recently renovated and was very green and clean.

This is one of the old "eggbeater" choppers. It was unique in that it has no tail rotor. The two rotors go in opposite directions!

This is an old Starfighter. They had a lot of problems with these in the 1970's. The tail was too small and the plane would have directional stability problems and crash.

We rode the simulator ride. These are getting more popular with the kids.

This is the inside of the hanger. Air Force Museums always have lots of planes.

Another place we visited was the Chaukhandi Tombs. They are several hundred years old, but not all the graves are ancient. There were some very recent burials.

Some of the tombs have quite intricate carvings on them.

Not all the tombs are pretty.

Here is more detail of the carvings.

We hope you enjoyed our travels and we plan on seeing some more of Pakistan when we come back for next school year. School starts in August!