Karachi
Pakistan's largest city and seaport on the Arabian Sea
Karachi is Pakistan's great commercial machine, a sprawling port city of close to twenty million on the edge of the Arabian Sea. It generates a vast share of the national economy through its harbor, factories, and stock exchange, and it draws migrants from every corner of the country, making it one of the most ethnically and linguistically mixed cities in South Asia. Hot, hectic, and entrepreneurial, it never quite stops moving.
The city stands on a coastal plain at the mouth of the Indus delta, where the seasonal Lyari and Malir rivers cross flat ground toward two natural harbors sheltered by the offshore island of Manora. Its climate is arid and warm, moderated by sea breezes, with sparse rainfall that occasionally arrives as destructive monsoon downpours the drainage struggles to handle. Mangrove creeks fringe the coast to the southeast, while the city sprawls inland across former scrubland.
Karachi grew from the small fortified fishing settlement of Kolachi, formalized in the early eighteenth century, into a major port after the British captured Sindh in 1843 and developed its harbor and railways. When Pakistan was founded in 1947 it became the new nation's first capital and absorbed enormous waves of Muslim refugees from India, transforming its character. Though the capital later moved to Islamabad, Karachi remains the country's financial heart, principal seaport, and most populous city.