Wonderful Pakistan! A Traveler's Notebook, Volume 3

By Jamshed Khan

From the splendid Trango Towers and majestic Mount K2 in the mighty Karakoram Range to the north, to the bubbling mud volcanoes along the beautiful Makran coast to the south, Pakistan is one blessed country. Perhaps, there is no other country in the world that exceeds Pakistan in offering beautiful and astounding vistas and landscapes.

Pakistan is truly a blessed country. It has a rich cultural, linguistic, and ethnic heritage that goes back thousands of years and beyond. For example, Meharghar, Sibi is a Neolithic culture dating back 7000 BCE. Soan Valley civilization near the Capital Islamabad dates back perhaps 500,000 years. This will make it perhaps the oldest human civilization discovered to date. Pakistan has astounding physical landscapes, terrains, mountains, valleys, plains, deserts, and sea coast that are second to none in their breathtaking beauty.

Pakistan will no doubt soon emerge as the number one tourist destination in the world. Pakistani people are warm, friendly, and hospitable and know how to take good care of their honored guests. I sincerely hope to facilitate this objective of Pakistan becoming a number one tourist destination in the world through my humble efforts in creating this eBook “Wonderful Pakistan, A Traveler’s Notebook.” Pakistan is truly a heaven on Earth!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jamshed Khan
• Release date: Dec 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005362546

Jamshed Khan

Jamshed Namdar KhanJamshed N. Khan was born in Lahore, Pakistan on August 6, 1953. He graduated from high school at the Forman Christian College, Lahore, Pakistan in 1971, and proceeded on as an immigrant to the United States of America in 1973. In the United States, Jamshed studied electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated with a BSEE in 1979.From 1979 to 1984 Jamshed worked at the Fairchild Semiconductor Company in Mountain View, California, as an Analog designer and frontend Manufacturing product engineer for Linear devices such as Operational Amplifiers and Timer circuits.In 1984 Jamshed joined the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California and was yield enhancement and product engineer for the Optical devices such as Optocouplers and Optically coupled Solid State relays.In 1997 Jamshed Khan became a Factory Applications Engineer for the Optocoupler devices and joined the IEC 60747 SC47E/WG4 as a technical contributor and participant to generate an International safety standard IEC 60747 for the Optocouplers and Optically coupled solid state relays.Jamshed subsequently worked in Agilent Technologies, Avago Technologies, and Broadcom, and retired in January 2017. Jamshed last job title before retirement was field applications engineer for Optocouplers and Industrial Fiber Optics for the Western United States and South America. In this capacity he visited Brazil numerous times. Since retirement Jamshed has indulged in his hobbies and passions. This includes World Travel, Photography, and golf.

Book preview

Chapter 1:

TAKHT-I-BHAI, MARDAN

Takht-i-Bahi, commonly mispronounced as Takht-i-Bhai, is an Indo-Parthian archaeological site of an ancient Buddhist monastery in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The site is considered among the most imposing relics of Buddhism in all of Gandhara, and has been exceptionally well-preserved.

The Buddhist monastery was founded in the 1st century CE, and was in use until the 7th century. The complex is regarded by archaeologists as being particularly representative of the architecture of Buddhist monastic centers from its era. Takht-i-Bahi was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

The word Takht-i-Bahi may have different explanations. Local believes that site got its name from two wells on the hill or the springs nearby. In Persian, Takht means top or throne while bahi means spring or water. When combined together its meaning is Spring from the Top or High Spring, and there were two springs on the top of mountains. Another meaning suggested is Throne of