Makli Necropolis

UNESCO World Heritage Site (1981) Historical Monuments At Makli, Thatta; One Of The Largest Funerary Sites In The World · Thatta, Sindh

Makli is one of the largest funerary sites in the world: a low ridge outside Thatta covered for kilometres with tombs, graves and mausoleums built over some four centuries, from the fourteenth to the eighteenth, when Thatta was the rich capital of lower Sindh and a port on the Indus. Kings, governors, saints and scholars were buried here, and their tombs record the whole history of the province in stone and brick. The Samma tombs are carved sandstone covered in geometric and floral patterns so fine they look like textile; the Mughal-era mausoleums of the Tarkhan rulers and governors are domed brick, faced with blue and turquoise glazed tiles. The largest, the tomb of Jam Nizamuddin II, mixes Hindu and Islamic carving on one facade. It is a World Heritage Site, and it has spent years on the edge of the danger list: floods, salt, encroachment and neglect have cracked and collapsed tombs, and the 2022 floods did more damage. It sees few foreign visitors, and on most days the ridge is silent. Pair it with the Shahjahan Mosque in Thatta below the hill.

Makli Hill, beside the National Highway (N-5), Thatta District, Thatta, Sindh, Pakistan

Open daily in daylight hours. There is a ticket at the main gate, with a higher foreigners' rate. The site is huge and spread along the ridge, so most visitors drive between the main tomb groups. Makli is about an hour and a half to two hours by road east of Karachi on the National Highway. Foreign visitors in rural Sindh are sometimes given a police escort.

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