Rawalpindi: A Garrison City's Layered Past and Present
Rawalpindi sits quietly beside Islamabad, its twin, offering something Islamabad's planned streets cannot: the texture of lived history. This is not a city of monuments. It is a city of bazaars where gold dealers negotiate in the afternoon heat, where military uniforms still shape the streetscape, where a garden carries the weight of two political assassinations, and where you can board a monthly train to Buddhist ruins that predate most of what you know. Come here when you tire of Islamabad's orderliness, or as a base for reaching deeper into Pakistan's archaeological past.
What to See: Layers of Time
The city's architecture is modest—Rawalpindi was never built for aesthetics, but for function and power. What endures are the traces of empire and older belief. In the northwest, traces remain of 55 stupas, 28 Buddhist monasteries, and 9 temples from when this region was Gandhara. The Mankiala stupa, a second-century site southeast of the city, holds a particular gravity: Buddhist texts say a previous incarnation of Buddha leapt from its cliff to feed seven starving tiger cubs with his own body.
In the old bazaars—Moti Bazar, Sarafa Bazaar, Purana Qilla—you will pass buildings with the geometry of another era. The bazaars themselves are functional archaeology: Moti Bazar trades in cloth and artificial jewellery, Sarafa Bazaar gleams with gold and intricate designs, Purana Qilla specializes in wedding clothes. Among the stalls, old temples and Lal Hawali (traditional mansions with weathered facades) punctuate the commerce.
- Liaqat Bagh, a garden that carries difficult history: Khan Liaquat Ali Khan, Pakistan's first prime minister, was assassinated here in 1950; 57 years later, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in the same place on 27 December 2007.
- Ayub Park covers roughly 2,300 acres beyond the old Presidency on Grand Trunk Road, with a lake for boating, an aquarium, a garden restaurant, and an open-air theatre—a place to walk for hours through green without the pressure of purpose.
- Army Museum, established in 1961 at the end of Murree Road, collects material from the Pakistan Army and the British Indian Army—the institutional history that shaped this city.
- Rawat Fort, 15 kilometres away off the Grand Trunk Road, provides another layer of the region's defensive past.
The Tourist Train to Taxila
On the first Sunday of each month, a tourist train departs Rawalpindi station around 9am, travelling to Taxila and returning in the late afternoon. The journey costs 1,200 rupees. Taxila itself—a UNESCO World Heritage Site and thought to have been home to one of South Asia's earliest universities or education centres—becomes accessible this way. The train stops at Golra Sharif, where a small museum awaits. From Taxila, a coach can take you to Khanpur dam, or you can visit the Taxila museum and examine the ruins directly. This is how Rawalpindi's travellers have traditionally reached deeper into the region's Buddhist past.
Where to Eat: Pakistani Food Without Apology
Rawalpindi's restaurant scene exists in the shadow of Islamabad's restaurants, which means better value and more authentic disregard for international expectation. You will almost certainly be the only non-Pakistani customer, and staff will regard this as an opportunity for hospitality rather than an oddity.
- Fortress Street, next to the cricket ground off Stadium Road, gathers several Pakistani restaurants that serve families and couples. An outdoor grill area serves sheesha around low tables; parking is ample and the street feels secure.
- Namak Mandi, on the second floor of Zarkoon Plaza in the Saddar area just off main Murree Road, offers upscale Pakistani and Afghan cuisine with both western seating and cushioned lounging. The restaurant stays busy; a meal costs around 600 rupees.
- Mei Kong, on Haider Road in Saddar, is a western-standard Chinese restaurant set back from the main road. Seafood is the strength—honey prawns particularly. Portions are designed for two to share; budget around 600 rupees per person.
- Tehzeeb Bakers & Pizzeria, between Bank Road and Haider Road in Saddar, is Rawalpindi's best place for pizza at 650 rupees, with an outdoor eating area.
- Mini Golf Club Restaurant (Sizzle'n'Spice), in Bahria Town Phase IV to the south, offers Pakistani food—barbecue and curries—from a terrace overlooking a small lake with flamingos and Greek statues. Around 700 rupees per person.
The traditional snacks of the old bazaars—gol gappay, dahi bhally, samosa chaat, chana chaat, fruit chaat—cost what local currency allows. A naan bread from a market vendor costs 7 rupees; the same meal from a western fast-food chain costs 300. The choice says something about what you came for.
Shopping and Movement
Saddar Bazar is Rawalpindi's modern market, versatile and easily navigated, connected to Mall Road on one side and the railway station on another. Gakkahr Plaza, in Saddar, sells leather, kameez salwar, and shoes—though it burned completely in 2008 and has since been rebuilt. For electronics, try 6th Road and Saddar; for the economical, Raja Bazaar offers most goods at lower cost, though lone female travellers should exercise caution there.
Midway Centrum is a multi-floor shopping mall with escalators and shops selling men's and women's fashions—useful on days when the bazaars are too hot. Sheikhs Mall on Adam Jee Road in Saddar imports garments and jewellery from Hong Kong, Thailand, Italy, France, and the UK. For gold, Murree Road and Sarafa Bazaar are the established markets, though traffic clogs both.
Getting to Rawalpindi and Moving Within It
Rawalpindi lies along the Soan River in northwestern Punjab, adjacent to Islamabad. The two cities are linked by the M-1 and M-2 motorways and function as a single metropolitan region known as the twin cities. From Islamabad airport, Rawalpindi is 20 to 40 minutes away depending on traffic. For movement within the city, vans and cabs serve the bazaar districts; Ayub Park is best reached by vehicle.
The city functions as a hub for tourists moving toward Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and the archaeological sites of Taxila. Its past is military—a garrison under the British, then home to the Pakistan Army's General Headquarters—which means it is orderly enough for visitors but not yet tidied into tourism. The bazaars still belong to the people who shop in them. This is what makes Rawalpindi worth a detour from Islamabad: it has not yet learned to perform itself for outsiders.