Abstract
To work with the goal of triggering and achieving a sustainable, social, economic and environmental revitalization of the historical core of an ancient city such as Multan is, in fact one of the oldest cities of the central southerly Asia, asks for a deep and full comprehension, as far as it is possible to attain it, of the territorial and historical conditions of a human community growth. The richness of the multilayered site of Multan, offered us the inspiration towards technical and creative actions, based first of all on profound respect and admiration for such a strong cultural identity. In the following pages are selected and presented basic geographical and socio-economic data as well as fundamental and distinctive facts, all of them considered essential key inputs to a better comprehension of the background and starting points of our interpretations, suggestions and plans for the future of the Walled City of Multan.
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- 1.
Unfortunately the wall that had belted the city in the past today is almost vanished, even if its mark on the urban configuration is still clearly and easily recognizable along the “ring” road of the Walled City.
- 2.
But the Muhammad Bin Qasim International Airport of Multan (10 km away from the city centre) has an elevation of 122 m AMSL.
- 3.
http://www.census.gov.pk/PUNJAB/MULTAN.htm. Census data of 2011 not still available (last access April 4, 2013).
- 4.
But, on the basis of a 2012 estimate, the population of Multan has already reached 1,550,000 of inhabitants (http://world-gazetteer.com/—Pakistan: largest cities and towns and statistics of their population). Professor Fauzia Qureshi in 2011 gives to Multan City a population of even 1.6 million (Qureshi 2011).
- 5.
http://www.literacy.gop.pk/ and MICS Punjab (2007–2008).
- 6.
Its date or period of construction cannot be fixed with any accuracy; it was considered as one of the best forts of the Indian sub-continent from the defensive point of view as well as from the architectural one.
- 7.
Harappa is an ancient city, today an archaeological site, in Punjab. In 1857 the site was damaged during the construction of the Lahore–Multan railroad (the bricks were used for track ballast).
- 8.
In the same years the Muslims took control of nearly the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, this way reaching the maximum extension of their empire.
- 9.
For the first time under the Abbasid Caliphs, who failed to consolidate the Muslim power; the second time under the Saffarid kingdom, when Multan was an independent state, “guarded” by the Sun God, whose temple, and “presence”, the Muslims preserved, even after the Hindu retreat.
- 10.
Also on the basis of the India 1909 General Map of Railways of the Imperial Gazetter Atlas of India.
- 11.
“By the summer of 1947[…] ten million people -Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs – were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding” (Singh 1956). “Pakistan was carved out in a desperate urgency. It came into existence with horrible loss of life and property, and the migration of millions of dazed and destitute men, women, and children. The cost was heavy in terms of human suffering” (Iqbal 2013).
- 12.
Of this recent period, it is also today known that a “Multan meeting” took place in January 1972: a secret meeting called by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, aimed to rally academic senior scientists (physicists and engineers) to build the atomic bomb for the country (http://www.defence.pk; http://www.pakdef.info).
- 13.
The average real growth rate (on an annual basis and adjusted for inflation) of the gross domestic production (GDP) since 1999–2011 is 4.6 % [our elaboration on Index Mundi data (http://www.indexmundi.com)].
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Bignami, D.F. (2014). Territorial and Historical Framework of Multan: A Prosperous Land and an Inspiring Past Leading to a New Progress. In: Del Bo, A., Bignami, D. (eds) Sustainable Social, Economic and Environmental Revitalization in Multan City. Research for Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02117-1_3
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