Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the second-largest Muslim population as of 2023. Islamabad is the nation's capital, while Karachi is its largest city and financial centre. Pakistan is the 33rd-largest country by area and the ninth-largest in Asia. Bounded by the Arabian Sea on the south, the Gulf of Oman on the southwest, and the Sir Creek on the southeast, it shares land borders with India to the east; Afghanistan to the west; Iran to the southwest; and China to the northeast. It shares a maritime border with Oman in the Gulf of Oman, and is separated from Tajikistan in the northwest by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor.
Priest-King from Mohenjo-daro (c. 2500 BCE)
Cremation urn, Gandhara grave culture, Swat Valley, c. 1200 BCE
Standing Buddha from Gandhara (1st–2nd century CE)
Badshahi Mosque, Lahore
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethnic-cultural terms. As commonly conceptualized, the modern states of South Asia include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. South Asia borders East Asia to the northeast, Central Asia to the northwest, West Asia to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian subcontinent and is bounded by the Indian Ocean in the south, and the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Pamir Mountains in the north.
While South Asia had never been a coherent geopolitical region, it has a distinct geographical identity
Timur defeats the Sultan of Delhi, Nasir-u Din Mehmud, in the winter of 1397–1398
Emperor Shah Jahan and his son Prince Aurangzeb in Mughal Court, 1650
British Indian Empire in 1909. British India is shaded pink, the princely states yellow.
