Makli, Thatta

There are some WHS on the List where it is hard to imagine what they are about and what they look like before you visit it. For me that always has been the case with “Makli, Thatta”. What’s Makli and what’s Thatta? Well, Makli means “little Mekkah” and is the name of the site, while Thatta is the name of the city it belongs to. The site is usually described as a necropolis, but I believe it is not really about the number of burials. It stands out for its set of monumental tombs and mausolea created in different styles by local dignitaries, who wanted to be buried near the shrine for the Sufi scholar Shaikh Jamali.

Makli was already inscribed in 1981, which seems a little early as although it is a nice site to visit it can hardly be seen as globally influential in any way; it’s more the eclectic result of a local building tradition. There is little info to go on why exactly it was made a WHS. It went through a re-focus stage post-inscription (including a name change) as described here, as the earliest incarnation seemed to suggest that other monuments in the city of Thatta were inscribed too. But only Makli is.

The entrance fee, as at all other WHS in Sindh Province, nowadays is 3,000 rupees (about 10 USD) for foreigners. It’s a vast site, impossible to cover fully on foot, with alternating areas of little interest and eye-catching monumental …

I won't speak to the heritage side of this, but only the logistics. [For reference I am a white American woman who knows only like 200 Urdu words]

The sites are definitely worth going to if you are in Karachi for more than a few days and it's a shame that more people do not go. Makli is only about 1.5 hours away from the city. Not extremely well-kept which is a shame, so worth seeing now before any more damage occurs. The necropolis itself is very large, so you can hire a long golf cart for 100 rupees per person at the entrance. Foreigners must show passport and visa at several stages. Chaukundi tombs can be seen on the way there, and Shah Jehan mosque in Thatta afterwards. When I was there, we were the only ones at the Chaukundi tombs (which are an extension of the Makli necropolis) except for the guards/caretakers. One man told us a lot of history there and details of the tombs. He was very knowledgeable and friendly and we tipped him upon leaving. At Makli, inside and outside the entrance has some beggars so it is advised to move quickly once exiting your car and you can enter the golf cart. Was disappointed to see a lot of trash outside of all of the sites, due to the corrupt nature of the Pakistani government in appropriating UNESCO funds.

The road from Karachi to Thatta is safe for a day trip, and …

In December 2017, I made a day trip from Karachi to Makli necropolis, about 60 miles to its east, which might be the world’s largest funerary site -- the ten square kilometer burial ground contains approximately one million tombs, mostly built between 1570 and 1640. Almost as interesting as the abundant tombs, were two elderly snake charmers who set up shop along the dirt path leading from the entrance to the tombs. The snake charmers seek visitors to fund a musical performance on the pungi, the wind instrument whose rhythmic sound and movements appear to hypnotize a de-fanged Indian cobra. Their second act is to entice visitors to purchase a serpent to battle an Indian mongoose to the death, although the mammal’s acrobatic agility, coarse coat and resistance to snake venom ensure its victory. For less than a dollar, I bought a common water snake to challenge the mongoose, but in order to maintain their inventory, my bout was interrupted by a snake wrangler who separated the two combatants. While on the way to and from Makli, I visited three locations on Pakistan's list of tentative World Heritage Sites: Chaukhandi Tombs, an early Islamic cemetery; Shah Jahan Mosque, a 17th-century mosque known for its geometric tile and brickwork; and the Port of Banbhore, an ancient city dating to the 1st century BCE. I made my arrangements with Travel & Culture Services (https://travel-culture.com).