Visiting Mazar-e-Quaid

Yesterday we went to see the place called Mazar-e-Quaid or Jinnah's Mausoleum.

I suppose this is the most important historical monument out of all that are located in Karachi. I’d seen it on so many pictures before I came to Pakistan and was eager to visit it myself.

...You might be wondering who Junnah is :)

Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a Muslim politician and leader of the All India Muslim League who founded Pakistan in 1947 and served as its first Governor-General. He is officially known in Pakistan as Quaid-e-Azam, the farther of the nation.

Jinnah wanted Pakistan to be a secular state and he mentioned it many times in his speeches, but his ideology never fully materialised because he died just a year after independence of Pakistan in 1948.

Now about the building itself. The mausoleum was completed in 60’s and is made of white marble with curved Moorish arches and copper grills rest on an elevated 54 meters square platform. The cool inner sanctum reflects the green of a four-tiered crystal chandelier gifted by the people of China. Around the mausoleum there is a park fitted with strong beamed spot-lights which at night project light on the white mausoleum. The location is usually calm and tranquil which is significant considering that it is in the heart of one of the largest global megalopolises.

There is a gallery near the mausoleum; you can see clothes, cars, furniture that belonged to Jinnah. For instance, there is a sofa where the farther of the nation ‘had made important decisions’ that influenced life of so many Indians and - in the future - Pakistanis.