Karachi

Karachi is a very big city in Pakistan. Millions and millions of people live there.

It sits by the sea. Ships, boats and fishers use its port.

Karachi is the largest city in Pakistan and the capital of Sindh, one of the country's provinces. It lies on the coast of the Arabian Sea, to the west of the delta where the Indus River meets the sea.

Pakistan's 2023 census counted 18,868,021 people in Karachi, up from 14,884,402 in 2017. Encyclopaedia Universalis notes that the city had only about 400,000 people in 1947, so it has grown very fast.

Karachi is the capital of Sindh province and, in the words of Encyclopaedia Universalis, by far the largest city in Pakistan. It is the country's main port and a center of industry and finance. The city spreads between the sea and the desert, taking in districts such as Clifton and Nazimabad, according to the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana.

Its growth has been unusually rapid, fed by waves of immigration and by people moving in from the countryside. Universalis gives about 400,000 people in 1947 and a little over 5.2 million in 1981. The censuses counted 14,884,402 people in 2017 and 18,868,021 in 2023, including the cantonments.

Karachi has a big white building with a round dome. It honors the man who founded Pakistan.

Around it is a large park.

The Mazar-e-Quaid is the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Its building, faced with white marble and topped by a 70-foot dome, was designed by the architect Yahya C. Merchant and finished in 1970. It stands in a large park, the Bagh-e-Quaid-i-Azam.

Empress Market, a marketplace, appears on an old map of the city's tram lines, which ran from the market to the wharves and cotton presses of the harbor.

The Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Management Board records that an international tender for the design of Jinnah's mausoleum was opened in 1958 and the work was eventually entrusted to the architect Yahya C. Merchant. Work began on 8 February 1960, the foundation stone was laid on 31 July 1960, the marble work started in 1966, and the mausoleum was completed on 2 June 1970. Its builders used 21,200 cubic feet of marble; of the 131.71 acres set aside for it, about 61 acres became the Bagh-e-Quaid-i-Azam park.

An undated map of the Karachi tramways in the Library of Congress shows lines from Empress Market to the wharves and cotton presses, and to McLeod Station, the terminus of the Scinde, Punjaub and Delhi Railway.

Karachi has a big port where ships load and unload.

Long ago, horses pulled trams through the streets. Now planes fly from an international airport.

Karachi's harbor is sheltered by a long, narrow strip of land called Manora and a small island called Keamari. The port was built along a causeway joining Keamari to the mainland. Together with nearby Port Qasim, Encyclopaedia Universalis says, it handles almost all of Pakistan's sea trade.

In the early 1900s, a tram company replaced horse-drawn trams with gas-powered ones. The city also has an international airport, named after Jinnah.

Universalis describes a difficult natural site at the edge of the Indus delta, where the Manora peninsula and the small island of Keamari give shelter; the port was built along a causeway linking Keamari to the mainland. With the neighboring Port Qasim, it says, the port of Karachi carries almost all of Pakistan's maritime trade, as well as that of landlocked Afghanistan.

On land, the Library of Congress recounts that the East India Tramways Company, formed in 1902, steadily replaced horse-drawn trams with gas-powered engines; by 1912 the new trams carried about 46 passengers at 18 mph. The city is also served by Jinnah International Airport.

Fishing is still important in Karachi. Many people also work in shops, offices and factories.

Families came to Karachi from many places to live and work.

Fishing has long mattered in Karachi, and Encyclopaedia Universalis says it is still important. Factories, trade, banks and the stock exchange have also brought the city prosperity, and more recently television, film and computer companies have grown.

People have moved to Karachi from all over Pakistan and beyond, which is one reason it has grown so large. The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana also calls it a cultural center of the country.

Encyclopaedia Universalis traces Karachi's prosperity first to fishing, still important, then to industry (today textiles, pharmaceuticals, steel and cars) and trade, with services now playing a large role through banks, insurance companies and the stock exchange; audiovisual media and information technology have become significant too. Quoting the French geographer Robert Ferras, it calls Karachi a relay through which foreign firms reach Pakistan.

The Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana describes a city that spread between the sea and the desert, absorbing districts such as Clifton, Ghizri, Drigh Road, Lalukhet and Nazimabad, and calls Karachi a cultural center of Pakistan. Both encyclopedias link its growth to migration, from rural areas and, after 1947, from India.