HISTORICAL PLACES (Islamabad)

Islambad (help·info) (Urdu: اسلام آباد) Islām ābād (Meaning "Abode of Islam") is the capital of Pakistan, and is the tenth largest city in Pakistan with an estimated population of 1.74 million in 2009. The Rawalpindi/Islamabad Metropolitan Area is the third largest in Pakistan, with a population of over 4.5 million inhabitants.
Islamabad is located in the Pothohar Plateau in the north of the country, within the Islamabad Capital Territory. The region has historically been a part of the crossroads of Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, Margalla pass being a gateway to the North-West Frontier Province. The city was built during the 1960s to replace Karachi as Pakistan's capital. However, the capital was not moved directly from Karachi to Islamabad. It was first shifted to Rawalpindi and then to Islamabad after all the developmental works were finished.
Islamabad is one of the greenest and most well-planned cities of South Asia. According to a survey, Islamabad is considered the cleanest city in Pakistan. The city is well-organized and divided into different sectors and zones. Islamabad was ranked as a Gamma World City in 2008. The city is home to Faisal Mosque, the largest Mosque in South Asia and the sixth largest mosque in the World. Islamabad has the highest literacy rate in Pakistan. The top ranked university in Pakistan, Quaid_i_Azam University, is located in Islamabad. The top two engineering universities in Pakistan, Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied SciencesApplied Sciences and National University of Sciences and Tecnology are also located here. Allama Iqbal Open University in Islamabad is the world's second largest university by enrollment.

Early history

15th century Pharwala Fort beside the Swaan River

Rawat Fort, built by the Gakhars in the 16th Century

The region is preceded by thousands of years of history. Islamabad Capital Territory, located in the Pothohar Plateau, is regarded to be one of the earliest sites of human settlement in Asia. The plateau has revealed evidence of a prehistoric culture. It is known that a Buddhist town once existed in the region. Relics and human skulls have been found dating back to 5000 B.C. that show this region was home to Stone Age people who used the banks of Swaan River as their settlement. The Stone Age people developed small communities in the region at around 3000 BC, leading to the early roots of civilization here.
Situated at one end of the Indus Valley Civilization, this area was the first habitation of the Aryan community from Central Asia. The civilization flourished here between the 23rd and 18th centuries BC. Some of the earliest Stone Age artefacts in the world have been found on the plateau, dating from 500,000 to 100,000 years. The crude stones recovered from the terraces of the Soan carry the account of human grind and endeavours in this part of the world from the inter-glacial period. Items of pottery and utensils dating back to prehistory have also been found.
Islamabad was one of the routes though which the armies from the north and northwest passed to invade the Indian Subcontinent. Many great armies such as those of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Timur and Ahmad Shah Durrani have used this route on their way to Indian Subcontinent. Modern Islamabad is based on the old settlement known as Saidpur. The region later became a Sikh town and became an important trading centre. The British seized the region from the Sikhs in 1849 and built Asia’s largest cantonment in the region.