It is the heart of the Indus Valley Civilization
dating back to 3rd millennium B.C. Thousands of tourists from all over
the world are attracted every year to visit the ruins of Moenjodaro near
Larkana. An elaborate canal system taken from Sukkur Barrage at Sukkur,
Upper Sindh Barrage north of Sukkur at Guddu, and Lower Sindh Barrage (Ghulam
Muhammad Barrage) at Hyderabad, irrigate together in this area over 10,000,0000
acres and account for about 40 per cent of Pakistan's irrigated land. The
fertile area yields abundant crops of rice, wheat and cotton and contains
the bulk of the population and most of the major commercial and industrial
centres of Sindh such as Hyderabad(795,000), Sukkur (193,000), Larkana
(123,000), Nawabshah (102,000), Shikarpur (88,000) and Dadu (39,000).
However,
its southern part is one of the worst areas of Pakistan for waterlogging
and salinity. There are many lakes in Sindh,which attract thousands of
migratory birds during the winter season from Central Asia. Manchhar lake
with its highly pulsating expanse of about 200 sq.miles of area is the
largest lake. With its foliage of towering grasses, its meadows of floating
lotus, its inhabitants in their floating habitations, the lake presents
an attractive look. Further south, stretches the Indus Delta, which is
a savage waste. An important feature is the Kinjhar Lake near Thatta, which
acts as a great reservoir for feeding canals in the adjacent areas. During
winter, it is an ideal spot for fishing and duck shooting. South of the
Kinjhar Lake, the surface is broken and littered with abandoned channels
of distributaries, sandy beaches, ridges and mangrove swamps, all merging
into the dead creeks, grate and salt water of the coast of Rann of Kutch.
At the extreme north-western end of the delta stands Karachi, the largest
city and the industrial and commercial hub of Pakistan. It is also the
port for Pakistan and terminal of Pakistan's railway system and the site
of the country's principal international airport. Climate and Seasons As
Pakistan is located on a great landmass north of Tropic of Cancer, between
latitudes 24 and 37 N, it has a continental type of climate, characterized
by extreme variations of temperature.
The areas closer to the snow-covered northern mountains are cold. Temperatures on the Balochistan Plateau are comparatively high. Along the coastal strop, the climate is modified by sea breezes. In the rest of the country, temperature rises steeply in the summer and hot winds, called "loo", blow across the plains during the day, dust storms and thunder storms occasionally lower the temperature. The diurnal variation in temperature may be as much as 11 to 17 oC. Winters are cold with minimum temperature of about 4 oC in January. Rainfall Pakistan experiences a general deficiency of rainfall.