PPAKISTAN has been blessed with an abundance of natural beauty, making it an important tourist attraction. Pakistan’s landscape features remarkable diversity and an unparalleled beauty. There are mountain ranges and glaciers, rugged plateau, sprawling deserts, large rivers, lakes and seas. This offers a vast variety of choices to the tourists visiting Pakistan.
There are a few areas in the world where mountains rise in such awesome splendor, as they do in the northern areas of Pakistan. The second-highest mountain in the world, K-2, and almost 37 of the worlds 100 highest peaks are in Pakistan; five of them over 8,000 meters. It has also the highest concentration of glaciers outside the Polar regions, with seven of them being over 40 kilometers long.
In addition, the world’s highest paved international road, the Karakoram Highway, is in Pakistan, which is considered to be the Eighth Wonder of the World. The second-largest salt mine, viz. Khewra salt mine, is in Pakistan. World’s highest polo ground is in Pakistan, where Shundur Polo Festival is held every year and is a great tourist attraction. It’s time that polo players in the Philippines visit Pakistan to enjoy the Shundur Polo Festival.
Ancient Civilization
Pakistan was cradle to a flourishing civilization over 5,000 years ago, known as Indus Valley Civilization. The excavations in the cities of Harrapa and Moenjodaro reveal the organized urban life, a civic identity and planned towns with wide streets laid out in a grid pattern, water wells and domestic and public drainage systems, assembly halls and public baths for the people, and a uniform system of weights and measures.
The people of the Indus Valley are also credited with being the first on Earth to grow cotton. They used large kilns to produce pottery and standard-sized bricks to make their buildings.
The Gandhara Buddhist civilization also flourished in today’s northern Pakistan. The civilization is uniquely reflected in the depiction of Buddha sculpted in Greek tradition.
Sports
In the field of sports, Pakistan has been No. 1 on a number of occasions. Pakistan’s hockey team has won the Olympic gold medal three times—in 1960, 1968 and 1984—and the Hockey World Cup four times—in 1971, 1978, 1982 and 1994.
The national cricket team won the Cricket World Cup in 1992 and was World Twenty-Twenty champion in 2009. Recently, its women cricket team won the finals in the Asian Games.
In squash Pakistanis have distinguished themselves internationally, winning the Squash World Open 17 times and British Open 12 times, the highest by any country.
Other popular sports in Pakistan include hockey, football, tennis and badminton, etc. These days people are also showing interest in rugby, baseball and skiing, etc.
Culture
Pakistan cities are alive with cultural activity, and there is a range of religious and spiritual festivals. There is a well-established tradition of folk and classical dance. Pakistani music has its roots in the culture and civilization that developed and flourished over several millennia. Women in Pakistan are making impressive strides. They are active in politics, businesses and all professions. The number of women joining professions and occupying executive positions is on the increase. In many academic disciplines of higher education, in particular medicine, they often outnumber male students.