Islamabad Rawalpindi Old Bazaars and Cantonment
Cross into Rawalpindi — the older twin city adjacent to Islamabad, where the chaotic bazaars of Raja Bazaar, the British military cantonment with its colonial architecture, and the busy commercial districts provide the contrast of authentic subcontinental urban life that the planned capital deliberately avoided.
- 1
Raja Bazaar Main Street
The dense commercial heart of old Rawalpindi — the streets crammed with fabric shops, hardware vendors, spice merchants, and the informal economy of a South Asian bazaar that has operated on these streets since before Islamabad existed, the contrast with the planned capital across the administrative boundary striking.
- 2
Bhabra Bazaar Spice Market
The spice market in the old city where the aromatic landscape of Pakistani cooking is concentrated — the open sacks of chili, turmeric, coriander, and the blended masalas that give Punjabi cooking its character, the vendors weighing spices on brass scales as they have for generations.
- 3
Rawalpindi Cantonment
The British military cantonment established in 1849 — the broad streets, the large bungalows, the parade ground, and the regimental architecture of the military district that has been continuously occupied from the British Indian Army through to the Pakistan Army's current General Headquarters.
- 4
Liaquat Bagh (Katchery Bazaar)
The public garden where Pakistan's first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in 1951 — now a park with a memorial, the site also of Benazir Bhutto's assassination in 2007, the garden carrying the weight of Pakistan's violent political history in its manicured lawns.
- 5
Murree Road Food Lane
The food street along Murree Road connecting Rawalpindi to Islamabad — the roadside restaurants serving the traditional Punjabi dishes that Islamabad's sanitized food culture lacks, the dhabas (truck stop restaurants) where travelers have stopped for biryani, karahi, and chai for decades.
- 6
Committee Chowk Historic Center
The commercial center of old Rawalpindi where the pre-Partition commercial activity of this garrison town concentrated — the surviving colonial-era commercial buildings, the clock tower, and the crossroads that has been the busiest intersection in Rawalpindi for over a century.