Quetta

This article is about Quetta, Pakistan. For other uses of the term Quetta, please see Quetta (disambiguation).

Quetta is the capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. The population of the district is estimated at over 500,000. Quetta is 1,680 metres (5,500 feet) above sea level and near Pakistan's borders with Afghanistan and Iran. By rail, it is 727 miles to Lahore, 986 miles to Peshawar, and 536 miles to Karachi. The Bolan Pass provides access to the rest of Pakistan.

History

Quetta's history dates back to the 11th century, when it was captured by Mahmud of Ghazni and was described as a city of lush fruits. In the 16th century, it was part of the Moghul Empire until it was taken by the Persians in 1556, and then retaken in 1595. The Khans of Kalat held the fort from 1730. In 1828, the first westerners to visit Quetta described it as a mud-walled fort surrounded by 300 mud houses. British troops occupied it briefly during the First Afghan War in 1839, but it did not come under their control until 1876. Since the partition of India and Pakistan, Quetta has grown significantly to become a centre for fruit farming, a transportation hub, and a military base (its name derives from kwatta, Pashtun for "fort".

Earthquakes

Like Peshawar, Quetta is in an active seismic zone. A great earthquake struck on 31 May 1935, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Since then, few buildings are multi-storey; modern houses tend to be single-storey and built of brick and concrete, to be as quake resistant as possible. The brick is of a distinctive yellowish tinge, unlike the red variety of Sindh and the Punjab. Quetta suffered another severe earthquake in 2008.