Although sometimes erroneously dated to 1865,the house was built in the last decade of the nineteenth century and was designed by Moses Somake had the habit of signing his buildings by inscribing his name in an obscure place and if you took the trouble you will find his name etched on an inner face of the porch.

This double-storey bungalow is Somake first known commission and was built during the last decade of the nineteenth century while the single storey annexe is a later  addition .You will notice that Somake has lavished most of his attention on the façade facing Fatima Jinnah Road(Bonus Road),which was the main thoroughfare at the time.

The bungalow lay neglected until 1985 ,when ,as a result of representation by Heritage Foundation, it was acquired by the Government of Pakistan ,restored and declared a national monument .as Quaid-e-Azam House Museum. The house provides an exciting and appropriate setting for relics of the founder of the nation ,at the same time brings to life the nostalgic aura of the colonial period.

The museum is a remarkable achievement for the preservation of the history of Pakistan Air Force, and will be of particular interest to aviation buffs. The PAF Museum has well-thought out displays of vintage and historic aircraft. It was designed and built with an aim to make it “the window of the history of the PAF” and a setting where “children would dream that impossible dream “.

The museum, which which opened its doors in 1997,presently occupies over 27 acres of the 80 acres allocated for it. In the lush green, seemingly open countryside in the midst of the bustling city of Karachi,28 aircraft are displayed. The huge hangar ,which is the focal point of the displayed. houses the rare relic of the Viking, the aircraft used by Father of the nation,Quaid-e-Azam jinnah,as well as an Indian Gnat which was forced to land during the 1965 Indo-Pak war.

The Museum has four airconditioned galleries dedicated to specific themes:History of Aerial Warfare demonstrated through model aircraft and paintings; fighter aircraft models of the world;Shohada(martyrs) of 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistan Wars. Two other galleries exhibit rare photographs,reprints,and paintings demonstrating the achievement of different P.A.F squadrons. An interesting aspect of the museum is the Multimedia Kiosk which provides all information regarding different aspects of P.A.F through touch-screen interactive technology, allowing the viewer to explore the text, image ,audio and video on the subject of his or her choice.

Museum Hall

In the museum hall, there are rare items on display including watches, pendulums, kerosene Tilley lamps, gate signal lamps, crockery, fans, arms and ammunition, surgical items used at railway hospitals, a 1904 hand pump, long armed chairs used in waiting rooms and Dak bungalows, a Railway time table of 1943 and historic photographs.

A majority of the items displayed at the museum belong to the North West Railways, as Pakistan Railways was called before Independence, dating back to year 1890. The attempt is to preserve and display vintage items and artifacts related to the history of railways at the Heritage Point.

Outside Museum Hall

Items on display outside the museum include a hand pump of 1901, and a ‘Heritage Special Train’, driven by an ancient steam engine accompanied by passenger coaches. The 110-year-old narrow gauge steam locomotive, steam cranes, 100-year-old hand crane, saloons, passenger and freight coaches. The saloon was said to belong to the Viceroy-e-Hind but no name was mentioned on it.

An interesting fact about the 110-year-old steam engine is that, it was in regular use, as early as 1990 and was still in running condition. The narrow gauge steam engine was run on the less frequent lines. A display model of the lane changing and up and down signal had also been installed. Different kinds of hand railway carts were also put on display and would offer a unique photo-moment to picnickers.

The basic objective of establishing Museum was to collect, preserve, study, and exhibit the records of the cultural history of Sindh. The museum features the history and heritage of the Sindh and Indus Valley Civilization. Items from various ruling periods of Sindh, including Samma, Soomra, Kalhora and Talpur periods can be found at the museum. and also the life style of Sindhi People.

Iqbal Manzil

After the death of his father, Iqbal named his elder brother, Ata Mohammad, the owner of the house. Ata Mohammed left two sons after his death who left the house and took up residences in Karachi and Lahore. Many tourists come especially to Sialkot to take a look at the poet’s home, which has now been restored as part of national heritage, where he lived and wrote poetry that one day would make him the legend that he is. The Government of Pakistan bought Iqbal Manzil for its restoration in 1971 and handed it over to the Archaeology Department, who aptly accorded it the status of a cultural heritage. After some renovation, Iqbal Manzil was converted into a library-cum-museum. The museum was inaugurated in 1977.The museum consists of a guided tour of some rooms of the mansion, and displays some furniture and other objects used by Allama Iqbal. Riaz Hussain Naqvi has been the curator at the Iqbal Manzil since 1986.

In these last 18 years, he has been immersed completely in the restoration and rebuilding of this crumbling historic building. He has been successful in refurbishing the building to quite an extent, but he still has many ambitious plans for the late Poet’s house. Cracks appeared several years ago in almost all the walls of the building. The Sialkot district government has repaired the cracked walls of 147-year-old Iqbal Manzil. Now the walls have been repaired and whitewashed, and the second storey of the three-storeyed building has been carpeted. The management has displayed some rare pictures of Allama Iqbal, his family, teachers, class fellows and other leaders of the All India Muslim League at the building. Most of these photos hold autographs of Dr Muhammad Iqbal.

After the renovation, over 200 people visit the ancient place every day. The Punjab government promise to establish an advanced research center at Iqbal Manzil has yet to be materialized. A room of Iqbal Manzil houses a more than 4,000 old books, among them 2,000 are on Iqbaliyat. It is planned to build a large library by collecting books, both on and by Iqbal, from all over the world where research could being conducted on the poet and his works. This library has already facilitated 5 students to attain their PhD degree on the works of Iqbal.

The National Museum of Pakistan is located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. National Museum of Pakistan was established in Frere Hall on April 17, 1950, replacing the defunct Victoria Museum. Frere Hall itself was built in 1865 as a tribute to Sir Bartle Frere, a Commissioner of Sind during the 19th century. The basic objective of establishing National Museum was to collect, preserve, study, and exhibit the records of the cultural history of Pakistan and to promote a learned insight into the personality of its people. Once the Museum was inaugurated then the Government of Pakistan deemed it wise to constitute an Advisory Council in 1950 with a primary duty to counsel the Museum on the issues of enriching its collection through new acquisitions and purchase of antiquities and works of Arts.

Galleries

The Museum was shifted to the present premises (located in Burnes Garden, Dr. Zia-ud-din Road) in 1970. At that time there were only four galleries in the Museum. However, at present there are a total of 11 Galleries in the Museum including an exquisite “Quran Gallery”. As a matter of fact National Museum has more than 300 copies of the Quran (all are exactly the same), out of which around 52 rare manuscripts are on display in “Quran Gallery”. The Museum also contains an important collection of items relating to Pakistan’s Cultural heritage. Some other galleries display Indus Civilization artifacts, Gandhara Civilization Sculptures, Islamic Art, Miniature Paintings, Ancient Coins and Manuscripts documenting Pakistan’s Political History. There is also an interesting Ethnological Gallery with life size statues of different ethnicities living in the four provinces of Pakistan.

Collection

The Museum has a collection of 58,000 old coins (some dating from 74 Al-Hijra), and hundreds of well preserved sculptures. Some 70,000 publications, books and other reading material of the Archeology and Museums Department were also shifted to the National Museum so that general public could see them.
Every year National Museum holds around a dozen exhibitions on National Days and other occasions. The Museum premises also has an auditorium with 250 seating capacity.

All the sites at Taxila cannot be visited in a day. However, the museum, which is the first stop for any tourist, is an ideal place to visit and get an idea about the archaeological significance of the place. The museum houses one of the best collections of Gandhara art in Pakistan; a display of artefacts detailing the daily life of the inhabitants of ancient Taxila, and a useful model of the whole valley showing all the archaeological sites.

Taxila Museum is one of the best and most well-maintained museums of Pakistan. Timings of the museum are 8:30 am to 5:30 pm in summer, and 9:00 am to 4:00 pm in winter. There is a resthouse near the museum, run by the Archaeological Department, a Tourist Information Centre and a PTDC motel as well.

The museum registered over 154,000 admissions in 2005.

Lahore Museum

It is located opposite the old University Hall, a Mughal-style building on the Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam. The Museum contains some fine specimens of Mughal and Sikh door-ways and wood-work and contains a large collection of paintings dating back to the Mughal, Sikh and British eras.

The Museum has also a collection of musical instruments, ancient jewellery, textiles, pottery and armory. There are relics from the Graeco-Bactrian times as well as well as some Tibetan and Nepalese work. The museum has a number of objects of Greco-Buddhist sculptures, Mughal and Pahari paintings on display. The Fasting Buddha is one of the unique collections of the museum — in 2004 Nobuaki Tanaka, the Japanese ambassador, agreed to provide technical know how as the Buddha is popular with Japanese tourists.

Lok Virsa Museum

The Lok Virsa Museum also known as the Folk Heritage Museum run by the National Institute of Folk & Traditional Heritage represents art works towards preserving the living folk and traditional culture and crafts of Pakistan. It is located near Shakarparian Hills and has a large display of embroidered costumes, jewellery, woodwork, metalwork, block printing, ivory and bone work. Traditional architecture facades exhibiting such skills as fresco, mirror work and marble inlay; tile, mosaic and stucco tracery are also displayed.

Adjacent to the Lok Virsa Museum, the Lok Virsa Heritage Reference Library is well equipped with resource data on ethnography, anthropology, folk music, art, history and crafts. Books on culture, heritage, audio and video-cassettes of folk and classical vocal and instrumental music are available for sale at Lok Virsa’s sales centre.

Introduction

Situated between the old Deans Hotel and the Old city, about five minutes walk from Jail Bridge and the Railway station.The museum currently has 14,101 items in the museum which range from Gandhara sculptures, coins, manuscripts and copies of the Quran, inscriptions, weapons, dresses, jewellery, Kalash effigies, paintings of the Mughal era and later periods, household objects and local and Persian handicrafts.
Historical background

The main hall of the museum was built in 1906-07 in memory of Queen Victoria at a cost of Rs 60,000; Rs 45,000 was donated by the public and the rest by the Indian Director General of Archaeology. The Museum was originally called Victoria Memorial Hall.

Layout

The two-story building, an amalgamation of British and Mughal architectural styles, originally consisted of a main hall and two side aisles on the ground and first floor. The side aisles were surmounted by four elegant cupolas and small pinnacles on all corners. Another two halls were added in the eastern and western side of the building in 1969-70. Four years later, a second floor was added to the side halls. In 2004-2005 construction was completed of an Islamic Block with two galleries, a conservation laboratory, two halls for the reserve collection, offices for the provincial directorate of archaeology and a cafeteria. As well as a remodelling of the existing building by replacing the show cases, lighting, labelling and displays in all the galleries of the main building, as well as the revamping of the floor and ceiling.


Gandhara art

Peshawar Museum has the largest collection of Gandhara Greco-Buddhist art in the world.In total, there are 4247 Gandahara pieces including Buddhist stone sculptures and panels, stucco sculptures, terracotta figurines, relic caskets and toiletry objects. The subject matter of Gandhara Art in the main hall includes Buddha’s life stories, miracles, worship of symbols, relic caskets and individual standing Buddha sculptures.

Islamic art

The gallery exhibits wooden façades of mosques, Arabic and Persian inscriptions, Multani tiles and ceramics, and the dresses and weapons of Syed Ahmad Shaheed Barailvi. Some of the best works are the Islamic metal artefacts in bronze and silver and calligraphic specimens as well as scrolls from as far back as 1224.

Ethnological section

This section exhibits the culture and life of the major tribes of the NWFP and the Kalasha of Chitral. It presently exhibits 348 items including twelve commemorative effigies of world famous Kalasha figures. Swords, daggers, spears, bows, arrows, shields, muzzle loaded guns, revolvers, pistols and gunpowder boxes are also exhibited.