Nekropolis Makli

Makli is a plateau about 6.5 km long near the apex of the Indus delta, beside Thatta, a former capital¹. UNESCO counts about half a million tombs and graves over some 10 km², built between the 14th and 18th centuries for kings, queens, governors, saints and scholars¹. Pakistan's Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM) traces these centuries through the Samma (1340-1520), Arghun (1520-1555), Tarkhan (1555-1592) and Mughal (1591-1739) periods⁵. Jam Nizamuddin II, or Jam Nindo, ruled Sindh from Thatta between 1461 and 1508 or 1509; Sindh's antiquities directorate calls him the most famous Samma ruler^1,6. The DOAM says work on his tomb began in 1509, a year after his death³.

Isa Khan Tarkhan II, a grandson of Isa Khan Tarkhan I, who had ruled lower Sindh independently, governed Thatta under the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan; the DOAM gives his term as 1627-1644⁴. He is said to have built his own mausoleum, which UNESCO dates, with the tomb of his father Jan Baba, to before 1644^1,4. DOAM records give his death as either 1644 or 1651^4,7. UNESCO's statement of Outstanding Universal Value calls for stabilising Jam Nizamuddin II's tomb¹. UNESCO's 2023 report notes that the August 2022 monsoon rains severely affected the site, that an action plan for that tomb had been prepared, and that no major conservation work had been done on Isa Khan Tarkhan II's mausoleum¹³.

UNESCO describes Makli's monuments as a fusion of influences, among them Hindu architecture of the Gujarat style and Mughal imperial architecture, and credits Makli with an original kind of stone decoration, perhaps modelled on painted and glazed tiles¹. Jam Nizamuddin II's tomb is a square building of stone masonry whose outer walls carry twelve carved bands of diamonds, lotuses, Quranic inscriptions and geometric patterns^2,3. A joint UNESCO/ICOMOS mission in May 2012 credited it with 'the highest quality three dimensional carved sandstone surfaces'¹⁴. The DOAM likens the carving to 15th-century Gujarat and suggests that craftsmen from Gujarat built the tomb². Sindh's antiquities directorate notes a thuluth inscription band beside a band of carved geese, and small temple-style spires (shikharas) at the corners⁶. A carved balcony projecting from the west side corresponds to the mihrab inside².

Isa Khan Tarkhan II's tomb stands in the middle of a square courtyard enclosed by high stone walls⁴. The two-storey building of yellow sandstone covers 455 m² on a high plinth, with open verandahs on all four sides at both levels, carried on square stone pillars with honeycomb capitals⁴. The square tomb chamber in the centre is roofed by a dome that the DOAM describes as a large true dome, possibly among the first built in stone^4,7. Carved tracery covers the inner and outer surfaces, and the mihrab recess on the west side is faced with carved stone panels inside and out⁴. Across a road to the north, the tomb of Diwan Shurfa Khan (d. 1638) is built of brick and faced with glazed tiles; UNESCO calls it the most colourful at Makli^1,10.

Because the dome was never built, the chamber of Jam Nizamuddin II's tomb is open to the sky². Its mihrab is carved with finely cut bands of Arabic inscription⁶. In Isa Khan Tarkhan II's tomb, three doorways lead into the square chamber; the two side ones are screened with stone grilles (jalis)⁴. Ten graves lie inside, their stone cenotaphs set on a long central platform and carved with inscriptions and floral and geometric designs⁴. Staircases in the eastern gallery climb to the upper verandah, and an enclosure at the southern corner of the courtyard holds three graves of the zenana, the women of the household⁴.