Photo by Hanif Bhatti While every adventurer dreams of travelling to far-flung places across the globe, there are many places to discover closer to home as well. If you live in Karachi, there are several places just a few hours’ drive away. It is always a pleasant surprise for a Karachiite driving up to Balochistan as the roads leads to open, scenic land.
One less explored place is the mysterious Cave City of Balochistan — an archaeological site located in district Lasbela, near Bela town. The site is the ruins of an ancient town, and is known by many names: Shehr-i-Roghan, Puranay Ghar, the Cave Dwellings of Gondrani, the House of Spirits and the City of Mai Gondrani. It is situated 180km (three-hour drive by car) north of Karachi.
It’s a smooth drive from Hub City onwards, and shortly after you cross the city limits you will see solitary herders grazing goats, sheep and camels with their babies in tow as the land opens up to rolling savannah of golden grass. The outlines of purple-grey hills rise in the horizon. After crossing crowded, unplanned and polluted Hub, in Winder you are greeted by gorgeous views of lush green oases, chikoo farms, sarson fields that could make one break into a song and cotton fields sprinkled with tiny snowflakes; and small patches of bananas, onions, maize and date palms. You can smell the onion fields before you can see them. When the sun shines over misty mountains, the water in the flooded paddy fields glistens with its reflection. As scattered water bodies start appearing, so do beautiful birds bathing in them.
Where man has interfered, the beauty is scarred with concrete construction. Flags and graffiti of political parties and banned outfits are splattered across makeshift shanties, petrol pumps, chai dhabas, tandoors and ugly cement structures that house government and private institutions. Everything is named Al-Mustafa — from schools to petrol pumps to shops to hotels to mechanics and, of course, mosques. Universities of seemingly no practical purpose in the world affairs, growth or development abound. Bikes, qingqis and tractors ply the highway. A beggar sits in the middle of nowhere, waiting for help from the heavens.
A less-explored archaeological site near the town of Bela in Balochistan is the mysterious Cave City
At Zero Point you can stop for a tea and toilet break, and then resume the journey. High hills and low mountains speckled in the sun / shade come into view. Bowls of clouds give shade to the mountains like giant umbrellas. Fresh, crisp air rushes down the mountains to greet you. Scattered sheep forage in the scraggly grass and drying river beds with patches of water.