Punjab Province of Pakistan

Punjab literally means the land of 5 rivers term refers to the 5 rivers flowing thru the region. Due to its rivers Punjab is the most fertile and most populated province of Pakistan. People speak Punjabi here and have many colorful traditions.

Punjab is considered most developed, populous, and prosperous province of Pakistan having about 60% of the country’s total population living in it. 

Historically, the Punjab region has been part of Sindu Sapta the term meaning (7 Rivers) but in the course of time southern Sindh was shrieked to a small province and Punjab became a larger and more prosperous region of the area.

The word Punjab was introduced by the by the Mughals in the 17th Century AD. It is a combination of the Persian words panj (five) and āb (water), thus the (land of) five rivers. The five rivers which flow thru Punjab are the tributaries of the Indus River namely Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi, Sutlej and Sindhu river itself.

In the Rigveda, the sacred text of Vedism, the Punjab region is associated with the ancient Sapta Sindhu, the Land of Seven Rivers, whilst the later Greeks referred to Punjab as Pentapotamia, an inland delta of five converging rivers. The British used to call Punjab “Our Prussia.”

Most of Pakistanis outside Pakistan come from this province.

Geography

Punjab of Pakistan has an area of 205,344 km2 (79,284 sq mi) it is the 2nd largest province after Balochistan and is located at the northwestern edge of the geologic Indian plate in South Asia. The province is bordered by Azad Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the province of Sindh to the south, the province of Balochistan to the southwest, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, and the Islamabad Capital Territory to the north.

The capital and largest city is Lahore which was the historical capital of the India during the Moghul times. Other important cities of Punjab include Gujrat, Multan, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Jhelum and Rawalpindi.

Punjab is a mainly a fertile region along the river valleys, while in the southern belt deserts of Cholistan is a bare land. The landscape is amongst the most heavily irrigated on earth and canals can be found throughout the province. Weather extremes are notable from the hot and barren south to the cool hills of the north. The foothills of the Himalayas are found in the extreme north as well.