Omer Hayat Palace

umar hayyat, a photo by Awais Yaqub on Flickr.

Omer Hayat Palace is located in Chiniot, Punjab. Small city known for its beautiful wood furniture carving which attracts lots of interest from all over the world. Omer Hayat Palace is situated at heart of old city, massive structure stands proudly within narrow converging streets. Palace was built by Omer Hayat, Merchant from early 19th century, he created it with extreme devotion which is still evident from beautiful wood work and paint work all around palace, unfortunately Omer's son died as soon they moved into this palace in few years Mr and Mrs Omer also died and Palace was converted into orphanage, later top two stories caught fire and they were demolished, today (2011) library serves as tourists attraction and small public library.

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Multan, Khewra, Chiniot

In 7 days i made a quick trip to 3 prime locations famous for hand crafted objects, Chiniot is known for its Wood carvings, Multan for Blue pottery, and Khewra for Salt mines and decoration pieces made of salt rocks.

Here is slideshow of photos i shot there, though i had very little time for photography but it was beautiful experience

Chiniot Mosque the marvel of Islamic Architecture

If you ever got chance to visit Faisalabad do visit Chiniot that is known for it's wooden furniture. Apart from wooden furniture city's 400 years old "Shahi Mosque". It is not large as other ancient mosques in Pakistan but carvings and architecture are splendid.

To approach Chiniot catch "Sargodah Road" from faisalabad and traveling around 35 km takes you to chiniot and ask anyone about the Shahi mosque. Apart from Shahi mosque there is beautiful Omar Hayat Palace (that will be my next blog entery).

For photographers

No restriction for taking picture. Get ready to face lots of dust. And do have some bananas of chiniot full of taste.

And here are my takes of the mosque. Click here for full gallery and large size of images

ALL images © Awais Yaqub