Hindu Temples of the Salt Range (and Khewra Salt Mine)

Khewra Salt Mine is one of the more famous tourist attractions near Islamabad.  Said to be one of the largest salt mines in the world, and in operation since Mughal times, it is certainly fun to visit and to be totally enclosed in beautiful walls of smooth pinkish salt.  I do not discourage visiting the mines, even though they are somewhat crowded, "foreigner fee" admission is steep at around $10, and the tour guides provide a useless service for which they harass you for tips afterward (an unusual experience in Pakistan more reminiscent of Egypt or India).  The instructions in this post will take you to the mine itself (which is about two hours from Islamabad); this post is not primarily, however, about the actual mine.

Far far more interesting that Khewra Salt Mine, in my opinion, are three Hindu temples located near the mine, more or less on the way to the mine from Islamabad.  This post is about those little detours, and focuses on the slightly tricky navigation it requires to find especially the second site.

First, an overview of the route from Islamabad to Khewra Salt Mine, which is principally along the Motorway which connects Islamabad to Lahore.  You can get on the Motorway by driving all the way west on Kashmir Highway.

Next, an inset of the "green box" in the map above, showing the entire off-motorway route.  The three sites covered in this post are Malot Temple, Shiv Ganga Temple and Katas Temple.  The purple line near Shiv Ganga Temple is a stretch of road not shown in Google Maps (and for which a higher clearance vehicle or good driver is recommended).

Malot Temple

You should take the exit from the Motorway at Kallar Kahar, a salt lake that is itself a sort of tourist attraction.  One direction off of the highway takes you toward the lake, which I found somewhat uninteresting, while the other takes you in the direction of Katas and Choa Saidan Shah, which is the direction you want to go.  The road travels parallel to the highway for a short stretch.  You want to take the first real right turn, in the direction of "Chhoie Mallot" on the map below.  The road is steep but solid, used I believe for cement trucks. If you follow this road for a while you will eventually see Malot Temple in the distance, above a small village.  The temples at Malot, from which there are incredibly dramatic views down to the plains below, are said to date from the 9th century, in Kashmiri style.  They are in surprisingly good condition and merit some exploration.  From http://www.himalmag.com/component/content/article/2794-.html:

Malot. The most beautiful of the Salt Range temple ruins are surely those of Malot. Made of deep red sandstone, the building stands on a hill to the southwest of the village of that name. The temple comes alive every morning as the red sandstone facade is set aflame by the slanting rays of the sun, a time when the lingam in the inner sanctum would have seen light. 

The most remarkable feature of the Malot temple is its Grecian character, seen in its two fluted columns and the Doric capitals of the main entrance which held up an arch that caved in long ago. The roof is crowned with an ugly wart, a lookout built by the Sikhs after they overran the region in 1810. Originally, the building rose beautifully in an ornate red spire or sikhara, evidence of which can be seen on the three facades that replicate the complete building in miniature. 

Malot must have been built early in the 9th century AD, when the rule of the Kashmiri kings had brought peace and prosperity. That was also the time when most of the Greek buildings of Taxila were still standing, providing inspiration to local stone masons to incorporate Western designs into their work.

Shiv Ganga Temple

Getting from Malot to Shiv Ganga Temple is the trickiest part of this itinerary.  To skip it, you could return to the road from the Motorway to Katas, and continue on to Katas directly.  Here is a Google Map of the route, along with the green box inset in satellite view.  The purple line indicates where Google Maps does not show a road to exist.

From Malot, return back down the hill and then take a right instead of returning to the main road.  This road will empty out into a small village, where the road will seem to disappear altogether.  If you look and ask around you will find a road turning to the left/north of the village, which cuts along some fields and then heads uphill.  This is the road that you want to take.  For the first couple miles this road is pretty rough, and most people would feel more comfortable in a high clearance vehicle.  The first time we took this road we did it in an SUV-type vehicle.  The second time, we were okay doing it in a smaller car.  But rest assured that pavement returns fairly quickly.

After passing some small coal mining operations, similar to those near Malot, and back on the paved road, you will encounter a more lush patch of trees to the right/below the road, and a small truck stop to the left of the road.  This is where you should park.  The temple lies just below, along a beautiful stream.  In addition to exploring the ruins of the temple, and a cave behind, you should follow the stream downhill, where there is a small waterfall.  Unless locals have just been bathing or doing laundry you will find the water beautifully clear and inviting.  I know nothing about the history of this temple--but with the overgrowth it has a romance not dissimilar from the temples of Angkor Wat.

Katas Temple

Returning to the main road, you can't miss Katas Temple as the road turns sharply south toward Choa Saidan Shah.  Park on the side of the road and enter the complex, which has been well-developed and is often full of local tourists.  Katas is a truly ancient and expansive site, centered around a lake that is said to be the twin of Pushkar Lake in Rajasthan, India.  An important Hindu religious site, it is still a place of pilgrimage.  Also located at the site is an excavation of a Buddhist Stupa, showing that the location has been a place of worship for many many centuries.  There is also a small British-era fort among the ruins.  Katas takes a good hour or two to explore, even casually.

From Katas it is a simple but beautiful and dramatic drive to Khewra.  Not only is the town of Choa Saidan Shah quite scenic, but the curvy drive down the salt range to Khewra itself provides outstanding views, including of one dramatically perched village.  If you got such an early start that the Salt Mine is still open for visits, go ahead and check it out!  If not, you can still do a little salt lamp shopping just outside of the mine and return to Islamabad on the Motorway.

Practicalities

The motorway is an easy drive, far less stressful than the Grand Trunk Road.  The second map above shows where there are rest stops along the motorway--there is one each in both the southbound and northbound directions, where you can stop for a proper Pakistani or Pakistani-Chinese meal, as well as tea.  Please note the road conditions noted above for the route from Malot to Shiv Ganga Temple.

Rohtas Fort

Rohtas Fort is, simply put, probably the most impressive and enjoyable historical site near Islamabad.  Its location halfway to Lahore on GT Road, just short of the city of Jhelum, also makes Rohtas a bit of an expedition, a true daytrip consuming an entire day's travel.  Rohtas easily beats Taxila, the other near-to-Islamabad UNESCO World Heritage Site, in impressiveness and enjoyability, though Taxila wins hands down in antiquity and historical significance.

Rohtas Fort was built in the 16th century by Sher Shah Suri, a Pashtun military commander who took over the Subcontinent out from under Mughal Emperor Humayun (son of Babur, the Empire's founder) and ruled it for a five year period from 1540-45.  Sher Shah Suri built Rohtas Fort to protect his newfound territory from Humayun, who had fled to Iran to seek assistance from the Safavids based in Esfahan.  Humayun returned to India in 1555 after Sher Shah Suri had died and left his Kingdom behind to less successful heirs.  Humayun marched his troops past an undefended Rohtas Fort, and re-established the Mughal Empire.  Humayun's son, Akbar, would prove to be the greatest of the Mughals, and the Empire continued until it was overthrown by the British in 1857.

And so, to speak accurately, Rohtas is definitely not a Mughal Fort; it is, however, a Mughal-era one and highly reminiscent of the great Mughal forts.  Its state of ruin and somewhat desolate location, together with the existence of a village persisting within its outer walls, are somewhat similar to Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar's great capital near Agra.  Although no building such as Fatehpur Sikri's Friday Mosque remains, Rohtas's scale is nearly comparable and its setting perhaps even more beautiful, than Fatehpur Sikri, and Rohtas exhibits well the classic defensive structures found in forts of that era (and all forts for that matter).  Rohtas is not only outstanding as a piece of military architecture, but for certain structures found inside, which I detail below.

Below is a map of the site.  The large red line cutting through is, approximately, the path of the main road.  This is the road that connects to GT Road, well off of the map in the direction indicated.  The road cuts through two of the main gates in the main outer wall that contains Rohtas Village.  The Citadel, to the left of the main road on the map, is the ticket-controlled area that is preserved as a historical site.  Green arrows and lines indicate walking directions and trails, while places of interest are underlined in red.

Places to visit, perhaps in the following order:

• Before parking your car in the main parking lot, you may want to drive over to the museum, which is built into the wall near Sohail Gate, where the road exits the fort at the bottom of the map.  Though small, the displays are surprisingly modern and informative.  You can also drive out the gate, to take a look at the walls on that side of the fort.  You may notice on the map that the road continues to a mountain called Tila Jogian.  There are said to be interesting historical sites on the top of this mountain, but I have not yet been.
• Returning to the main parking lot, you can buy your admission tickets and enter the citadel through Shah Chandwali Gate.
• Here, you find yourself in the main "museum" area of the fort.  The most notable structure is the Haveli Man Singh, which can be climbed for great views.  Most of the structures in the citadel are, as you can see, heavily damaged, and the whole area is fairly desolate.  Walls can also be climbed for more views.  Walking around the various edges of the fort you can see why this site was selected--ridges along the sides make it highly defendable.
• Along the upper left of the map above is the river.  Usually shallow enough to cross, the area along the river provides the finest views of the fort.  I would suggest first checking out the small Badshahi Mosque, just under the Kabuli Gate on the map, and that exiting through that gate, stopping to check out the impressive well.  The area between the river and the fort, and the area just across the river, provide amazing views.
• On the upper left you can see a box which indicates the Temple of Baba Nanak.  An old Sikh Temple with a tank used by local boys for swimming, and Hindi or Punjabi (?) inscriptions in Devanagari rather than Urdu script, there is also a small building that can be entered for views.  You can re-enter the citadel through another gate, which contains more interesting structures that can be explored.
• Now that you're done exploring the citadel, you can explore the sites in the "village" area of the fort, as well as the wall that appears on the right side of the map.
• The most exciting structure in the fort, other than its walls and gates, is probably the large step well, identified as "Baoli" on the map above, to the right of the museum.  The step well is huge and a superb example of step wells generally--probably at least fifty times as deep as Losar Baoli in Islamabad.
• Just north of the step well, and within site, is a small Hindu Temple, now in ruins.
• Exiting the fort through a small door or gate on the right side of the map above, you will found surprisingly beautiful terrain.  A narrow gorge, along which you will encounter shepherds and maybe a few odd characters with small axes for chopping wood (see practicalities below), a series of trails (marked as a green line on the map above) will take you along the walls and out toward the main road.  This is a surprisingly beautiful route, with many splendid views of the fort, which I highly recommend.  Taking the entire length of the green line outlined above would take less than an hour.  Please note that it may be difficult to find shortcuts back into the fort from some of these areas--you really have to commit to walking the whole route.

More Practicalities

Rohtas is off of the Grand Trunk Road, the medieval route that connects Kabul to Calcutta.  Driving from Islamabad to the Rohtas turnoff, which is after the small market town of Dina and before the bigger city of Jhelum, takes about an hour and a half or two hours along the busy road.  It is a right turn heading down from Islamabad.  From GT Road to the fort itself takes about 15-20 minutes.  Supposedly, there have been security instances at Rohtas in the past (something about a Russian ambassador being mugged (??)), and so the local police are likely to provide local police escorts once you are at the site.  I do not know if this is really a necessary precaution, but they are friendly (they may even speak some English!) and provide a little extra piece of mind when doing some of the walks outside of the walls, where you are likely to come across funny little men with axes.

There is not much food to be purchased at Rohtas--pack a picnic lunch.

Wah Gardens

This blog is really intended for residents and long-term visitors to Islamabad.  Not everything covered here, and certainly not the places covered in my last two posts, would be considered a world-class site that is worthy of a traveler spending a limited amount of time in Pakistan.  The site covered in this post, however, while also not quite worthy of a special visit, is an easy add-on to Taxila.

The civilizations of Iran and South Asia are famous for their gardens, or baghs.  From the gardens of Shiraz, Iran, to the Shalimar Gardens of Lahore and the gardens in the Mughal Palaces of India, the familiar geometric layouts, always with plenty of flowing water and fountains, of Iranian-style gardens are emblematic of the aesthetic sophistication and poetic romance of this region.  Sadly, many of these gardens in the Subcontinent have fallen into disrepair--but even in ruins they carry a sense of the idyllic lifestyle of beauty that Mughal royals were able to enjoy, in the height of their power.

Islamabad is not located near a Mughal center of power, and therefore is not close to major Mughal architectural remnants, but there is a Mughal garden, said to be constructed by no less than Shah Jahan, the great builder of Old Delhi, only about an hour away to the north:  Wah Gardens.

Occupying a surprisingly large area, Wah Gardens contains ruins of what must have been beautiful pavilions and fountains.  Still remaining are channels of clear water throughout the site, fed from what appears to be an ample natural source and filling a large rectangular tank, used by local boys for swimming.  Toward the north end of the gardens, you will see a gate and rampart where you can climb to the top of the walls for a view of the village of Wah Gardens to the west, including the house referenced in the next paragraph, and the area immediately outside, which judging by its disused water channels must in the past have been part of the gardens themselves.

After you've enjoyed the gardens, you can continue down the road to visit the village of Wah Gardens, where there is a notable historical house, said to be built by the British in the early 20th century for a prominent citizen, Nawab Hayat Khan.  When we were in Wah, we were not able to enter this house, but we were able to visit a nearby local house with an impressive interior not dissimilar to (though also not quite approaching) elaborate houses in Damascus or Bukhara.  Poke around, and see what you can discover!

Practicalities

Wah Gardens is located just to the north of the city of Wah, which lies on Grand Trunk Road just north of the turnoff for Taxila.  Note that, as you approach the city of Wah, you should NOT turn off of GT Road toward the Pakistan Ordinance Factories.  This road has a tollbooth-type police checkpoint that may turn you away; if you just continue to the left on GT Road, you can continue without any checkpoint, until you pass the city of Wah altogether.  The turnoff to Wah Gardens is on the left just before you reach the bridge outside of town; there should be a small sign.

Rawat Fort

Following on my last post, another site that lies within the city limits of Islamabad:  Rawat Fort.  Rawat Fort is nowhere near as impressive as Rohtas Fort, which is one of the two UNESCO World Heritage Sites near Islamabad, but it wins on proximity:  It is a short drive down Islamabad Highway, just past where Islamabad Highway empties out into the Grand Trunk Road.

The fort itself, located in a small residential area located a few hundred meters from GT Road and shops, is in ruins, but the gate is in decent shape, as is a small octagonal domed building and mosque inside.  Inside the fort you will usually find children playing cricket, eager to engage with visitors.

Practicalities

Getting to Rawat is super easy--just keep driving south on Islamabad Highway, and then turn left on GT Road toward Lahore.  You will know when you've reached Rawat when you see a bunch of shops to the left and to the right of the road, and as traffic slows down as many people try to cross the road.  As the fort is on the west side of GT Road, you'll have to go past the shops to make a quick u-turn, and then go onto the Service Road parallel to GT road, past all the shops.  The entrance to Rawat Fort is near the very end of that Service Road.  You can either park on the Service Road or drive uphill through the small neighborhood and park at the entrance to the fort.

Shah Allah Ditta - Caves and Well

It's easy to forget how big Islamabad actually is.  When the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) was first established in 1960, it included not only what is now Islamabad, but also the city of Rawalpindi, which is now included in Punjab Province.  But even with the exclusion of Rawalpindi, ICT extends way up into the Margalla Hills, almost all the way out to Taxila, out east way past Rawal Lake and south to include Rawat, where the Grand Trunk Road (GT Road) meets Islamabad Highway, and parts of Bahria Town, which is south of Rawalpindi.  You can check out the limits of the city on this map, on Islamabad's official homepage.

Included within this area, within the city limits, are a surprisingly number of colorful and remote-feeling sites, far from the relative suburban dullness of F-6 and F-7 Markets, and the sterile Blue Area.  This post is about one of these sites, the Buddhist caves of Shah Allah Ditta (also known as the Sadhu ka Bagh) and the Losar Baoli, or Stepwell, nearby way up in the Margalla Hills.  These sites, though minor, present a pleasant small cluster of things to see, as well as a peaceful spot for a quiet picnic.

The caves of Shah Allah Ditta are said to date to the Buddhist period, and include remnants of Buddhist-era murals.  We did not see any such remnants, but the small chambers carved out of the hillside, and the clear spring flowing out, do suggest ancient human habitation.  After a brief tour and a go on the installed swing, the keepers will, for a small charge, serve you tea on the charpoys under the trees.

Driving all the way up the Margalla Hills from here take you to similar heights as Pir Sohawa and the area around Monal Restaurant, with similar views, but without any of the crowds.  The times we've been, we've seen one or two cars maximum.  All the way top, where the paved road ends, is Losar Baoli, a small but solid built and well preserved step well said to date from Mughal times (specifically, during the reign of non-Mughal Sher Shah Suri).  If you walk up and to the left behind the well, you will find spots that are suitable for a quiet picnic, with good views of the uninhabited hills.

Practicalities

Getting to these sites is fairly straightforward.  You can head west on Margalla Road (Khayaban-e-Iqbal) all the way west toward E-11, and then either turn north into D-12, cutting onto Shah Allah Ditta Road from D-12's southwest corner, or head out on Golra Road from the Golra Sharif Shrine, turning right onto Shah Allah Ditta Road.  After you pass the small village of Shah Allah Ditta, the caves are prominently located in front of the road just as it turns left up the hill past a couple of restaurants.  The well is located on top of the hills, so just drive up up up the curvy mountain road, and park where the asphalt ends.  You will see a small sign in Urdu and a small one room concrete shack.  The well (which is a bit difficult to spot at first since it is underground) is located just to the right of the shack.  A short walk up the hill from here, such as behind the well to the left, leads to nice picnic spots with views.  Note that while google maps shows the road continuing past the well, all the way through to the Khanpur area, we have been told that the road is not motorable (not even as a dirt road), and so we do not recommend you try it.

Taxila (Ruins of Gandhara)

Pakistan has six UNESCO World Heritage Sites, two of which are happily within striking distance of Islamabad.  This post focuses on one of them; I will post on the other soon.

You may not be familiar with the name "Taxila" but I imagine many of you are familiar with the civilization of which the ruins of Taxila are some of the most complete remnants:  the Kingdom of Gandhara.  Gandhara pre-existed Alexander the Great, but is most famous for being the furthest reach of the Hellenistic World, an amalgam of East and West, most notoriously evidenced in the Greek stylings of its Buddhist statuary.  Gandhara is also famous for its role in spreading the Buddhist religion from South Asia into Central Asia, whence it spread to East Asia, where it would flower into a majority faith long after it would die off in the land of its origin.  And, finally, Gandhara is notable as a home of Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great, one of the most powerful rulers of the Subcontinent, only surpassed by the Great Mughals and the British Raj.

Reading about Gandhara in history books was, to me, to imagine a place that seemed extremely remote.  It seemed so far east of the Western world, beyond Turkey and Iran, but also far from the parts of Asia most familiar to me. Even in my Central Asian travels it seemed somewhere distant, perhaps because I was not familiar with any of its place names, and no existing political body seemed to be a direct descendent of this Western-influenced, Buddhist state.  It was only after studying maps more closely that I learned that the heart of Gandhara lay in modern Pakistan, only an hour or more from the capital of Islamabad, with Taxila, once a Gandharan capital, the locus of generations of cities.

Taxila Ruins

The ruins of Taxila are fairly spread out (see map below), and offer great diversity in type of structure, age and state of preservation.  What you will see will depend on the amount of time you have; below is a bulleted list of some of Taxila's most famous ruins.  At each of the sites will be men who will offer to act as your guides.  Whether you can brush them off or not, they may be able to provide somewhat valuable historical information at relatively little cost.

• Taxila Museum - This is a modern structure housing some of the artifacts and best-preserved statuary from the sites.  Taxila Museums is a logical starting point for your visit, and deserves a return visit at the end of your tour.
• Bhir Mound - These are the earliest of Taxila's ruins, the city at the time of Alexander's visit. There is not much to see, but it is right by the road and the Museum.
• City of Sirkap - This is the largest of the Taxila ruins, a Bactrian city built in a Greek grid layout.  The walls of the ruins may seem uninspiring at first, but a few gems can be found, including the "Double Headed Eagle Stupa".  Another structure is said to have welcomed St. (Doubting) Thomas upon his arrival in Taxila (under the popular legend that St. Thomas traveled to India after the death of Jesus Christ) and is a place of Christian pilgrimage.
• Jandial Greek Temple - A small site, but well worth a detour, is this temple, which is in somewhat typical Greek form, though with what seems to me to be a a Levantine-type adaption of stairs in the back to the structure's roof.  This site, perhaps even more than the Gandharan art, makes alive the presence of Greek cultural influence in the region.
• Dharamarajika Stupa - This is the largest stupa in Taxila, and is thought to have been built by Emperor Ashoka himself in the third century BCE.  The stupa would have housed relics of the Buddha.  Part of the site is a small water tank surrounded by what is described as monks' cells.
• Sirsukh Ramparts - Only walls remain of these ruins dating from after Sirkap.
• Mohra Moradu Stupa - Built in the second century, these compact ruins are of interest in part because a Muslim holy site seems to have sprung up next to it.  The reuse of religious sites is of course a common phenomenon.
• Jaulian Monastery - One of the grandest ruins, and furthest away, Jaulian contains some of the nicest sculptures in situ and was the origin of many of the artifacts now found in the Museum.

Other Things To See

Just north of Taxila Museum, you will come across a street of stonecarvers.  It's quite entertaining to see them chipping away with chisels at various blocks of stone.  You can also buy their products.  Stone shops also carry plaster objects covered with pieces of mirror.  Many a tourist have driven away with disco balls or, even better, disco cats as souvenirs of their Taxila visit.  In season, the Taxila area is full of citrus fruit.

Also nearby are the Wah Garden and Kanpur Lake, on which I may blog at a later date.

Practicalities

Taxila is about an hour northwest of Islamabad on the Grand Trunk Road, a busy but uneventful and easy drive.  GT Road can be reached by driving west on Kashmir Highway.  As you escape Islamabad, GT Road will gradually climb up the Margalla Pass, over the highest point of which stands the obelisk of a monument built for John Nicholson, a British East India Company officer who died in Delhi during the Sepoy Mutiny; It is just after this that you will turn off toward Taxila, passing the buildings of Taxila Cantonment, including Heavy Industries Taxila Education City.

As you can see below, the ruins of Taxila are spread out over a wide area.  Your first stop, and maybe also your last, should be the Taxila Museum.  There is one ticket for the museum and another ticket for all of the ruins other than Jaulian, which lies in the Provice of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and therefore has a separate admission.

There is not much food to be purchased around Taxila--pack a picnic lunch.