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 THATTA: Time is not far when Bhambore will remain to be recalled only in the famous folktale of Sassui and Punhoon.
It is due to the failure of the archaeology department in maintaining the historical site that now Bhambore can be described as a place of fast vanishing ruins of 637 AD. Great warrior Mohammed bin Qasim is said to have landed there in 712 AD.
It is situated on the northern bank of Gharo Creek, 39 kilometres from Karachi, off National Highway.
The site’s features are of a settlement, divided into two parts. First is an area within a large fortified wall while the other is outer town spreading over a large area in the north and east, around an ancient lake. It includes traces of an industrial area and old graveyards on the outskirts.
The government constructed a museum in 1967 and an office block for curator, residential quarters for staff, a library and public park. But the exercise proved futile as no further excavation has been carried out since then.
No maintenance has been carried out for over four decades: the dilapidated Museum is about to collapse while other buildings, including the library, are in bad shape.
A restaurant opened by the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation was closed over a decade ago while electricity and telephone facility are non-existent.
Curator Ghulam Hussain Burdi told Dawn that to protect 2,500 antiquities in reserve collection and 2,300 antiquities on display, they had arranged temporary power supply from a nearby village.
He said incomplete road, lack of lavatories, park and other public amusement facilities at the site drew only a marginal number of visitors to the site. Visitors opted for private parks and farm houses, he added.
He said that though the site was potential enough to reveal a lot about the past, no excavation had been stopped.
The site has been defaced by encroachers. Around 450 acres of land of the archaeology department was reportedly encroached upon by a then adviser to Sindh chief minister in 1996 for building a chemical factory, but the attempt was averted.
Bhambhore of ancient times was a reputed seaport for trading of horses, silk and cotton.
A number of civil society activists are apprehensive of the fact that RBOD, which is hardly few kilometres away from ruins, would pass through the site.
They said planners should review alignment to save the site.
Local people believe that the archaeology department has been given under the administrative control of Sindh and the minister concerned will do something at least for Bhambhore. |
