Thatta District

Thatta District (Urdu: ضِلع ٹهٹهہ‎; Sindhi: ضلو ٺٽو‎) is located in the southern area, locally called Laar, of the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Its capital is Thatta. It is home to a large necropolis of Makli. According to the 1998 census of Pakistan, it had a population of 1,113,194.

History

The capital of three successive native Sindhi dynasties and later ruled by the Mughal. Thatta was the capital of three successive dynasties, the traces of which are evident in the Makli necropolis, which spreads over a twelve square kilometer area. These dynasties are: Samma (1335-1520), Arghun (1520-1555) and Tarkhan (1555-1665). Thatta was constantly embellished from the 14th to the 18th century. The remains of the city and its necropolis provide a unique view of civilization in Sindh. Thatta, about 98 km (61 mi) east of Karachi. Thatta also served as capital of Sindh and as a center for Islamic arts.

Since the 14th century four Muslim dynasties ruled Sindh from Thatta, but in 1739 the capital was moved elsewhere and Thatta declined. It was believed that this was the place where Alexander the Great rested his legions after their long march. The town is dominated by the Great Mosque built by the Moghul Emperor Shahjahan which has been carefully restored to its original condition. The mosque's 33 arched domes give it superb acoustics and the tile work, a whole range of shades of blue, is equally fine.

Thatta

Coordinates: 24°44′46.02″N 67°55′27.61″E / 24.7461167°N 67.9243361°E / 24.7461167; 67.9243361

Thatta (Sindhi: ٺٽو‎; Urdu: ٹھٹھہ‎) is a city and capital of Thatta District. It will be capital of the announced Banbhore Division. It is a historic town of 220,000 inhabitants in the Sindh province of Pakistan, near Lake Keenjhar, the largest freshwater lake in the country.

Thatta's major monument, the necropolis at Makli Hill, is listed among the World Heritage Sites. The Shah Jahan Mosque, Thatta is mentioned separately on the tentative list since 1993. Located 100 km (62 mi) east of the provincial capital of Sindh, Karachi, it makes for a practical escape for people from the city seeking to visit the picturesque old town.

History

Thatta may be the site of ancient Patala (Πάταλα in Greek), the main port on the Indus in the time of Alexander the Great. The site of Patala has been subject to much debate. Ahmad Hasan Dani, director of the Taxila Institute of Asian Civilisations, Islamabad, concluded: “There has been a vain attempt to identify the city of Patala. If ‘Patala’ is not taken as a proper name but only refers to a city, it can be corrected to ‘Pattana’, that is, city or port city par excellence, a term applied in a later period to Thatta, which is ideally situated in the way the Greek historians describe”.Herbert Wilhelmy has pointed out that siltation had caused the Indus to change its course many times over the centuries and that in Alexander’s time it bifurcated at the site of Bahmanabad, 75 km to the northeast of Hyderabad, which John Watson McCrindle had considered to occupy the site of ancient Patala.