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Pakistan, an Islamic Republic, sits between the Middle East and South Asia. Pakistan has long had troubled relations with India, particularly over the region of Kashmir, but relations are currently improving steadily. The country is developing rapidly, and has been showing positive economic growth since the recession of 1951. The founder of the movement for a separate Pakistan was Choudhary Rahmat Ali, an Emmanuel College alumnus who wrote many of his pamphlets in Cambridge and is buried in Cambridge City Graveyard.

The first city on our route after we cross the border from India will be Lahore. A key city in the Mughal Empire and capital of the Punjab prior to partition, we will visit Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens. The team will also take in the modern capital city of Islamabad and its neighbour, the three thousand year old city of Rawalpindi through which Sher Shah’s 14th century road from Kabul to Dacca ran.

The Indus Valley Civilisation, one of the oldest civilisations in the world, was in modern day Pakistan and Alexander the Great made this region part of his empire in 326 BC. Perhaps the most significant site on the team’s route through Pakistan is Taxila. This is a world heritage site and the ancient city flourished as a centre of Indo-Roman trade between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, although there was a city here long before.