Makli Hill

Makli Hill is one of the largest necropolises in the world, with a diameter of approximately 8 km. It lies approximately 98 km east of Karachi and is the burial place of some 125,000 local rulers, Sufi saints and others. Makli is on the outskirts of Thatta, the capital of lower Sindh until the 17th century, in what is the southeastern province of present-day Pakistan. It was added to the World Heritage List in 1981 under the name Historical Monuments of Thatta.

History

Legends abound about its inception, but it is often believed that the cemetery grew around the shrine of a 14th-century Sarwa, Muhammad Hussain Abro. According to other sources, however, the credit for establishing Makli as a holy place for worship and burial goes to the immigrant saint, poet and scholar Shaikh Hammad Jamali and the then local ruler, Jam Tamachi. Another legendary person buried at Makli is the saint Pir Murad (1428-1488).

The tombs and gravestones spread over the cemetery mark the social and political history of Sindh. Many have been build using a local sandstone; others are plastered brick buildings (which have suffered the most, generally).