Things to do in Multan

Landmark · The fort mound, old city

A colossal octagonal brick-and-tile mausoleum built in the 1320s on the mound of the old fort — one of the great pre-Mughal monuments of South Asia and visible from most of the city.

Local tip: Go an hour before sunset, when the low light does something to the blue tilework that photographs cannot reproduce, and walk the fort mound around it afterwards. Dress modestly, remove shoes at the threshold, and expect to be welcomed rather than watched.

Food · Old city

The main bazaar of old Multan — spices, dried fruit, cloth, and the sohan halwa shops the city is known for.

Local tip: Buy the sohan halwa in a tin rather than loose, and go early: the lanes are genuinely impassable by mid-morning. The best eating here is breakfast — halwa puri and lassi from the stalls before the shops open.

Culture · Around the old city and Qasim Bagh

Working kashi tile kilns and naqashi camel-skin lamp studios, still producing the crafts that face every shrine in the city.

Local tip: These are workshops, not showrooms, and the way in is to ask at the shops that sell the finished work. A camel-skin lamp survives a flight badly and a tile does not survive one at all — buy small, and watch it being made rather than buying to take home.

Neighborhood · North Multan

The modern residential and commercial spine running out past BZU and Nishtar — where most professionals live and where the cafés, clinics and better schools are.

Local tip: Bosan Road is also where the Metrobus corridor runs, which makes the northern end of the city the one part of Multan you can genuinely live in without a car. That is worth more than it sounds in a city with these summers.

Nature · About 20 km north-west of the city

A barrage on the Chenab with river banks, birdlife and the nearest real open water to a very dry city.

Local tip: This is where Multan goes when the heat finally breaks in late September, and it is close to empty on a weekday. Go early, take everything you need, and treat the river with respect — the channel is fast and there is nothing resembling a lifeguard.

Culture · Bohar Gate, old city

A low, flat-roofed twelfth-century tomb entirely sheathed in blue and white kashi tile, wedged into a lane in the old city.

Local tip: Almost every visitor goes to Shah Rukn-e-Alam and almost none find this, which is a shame — it is older, it is smaller, and the tilework is arguably the finest in Multan. Ask for Bohar Gate and then ask again; it is invisible until you are in front of it.