Tombe di Chaukhandi

The Chaukhandi graveyard lies about 27 km from Karachi on the road to Thatta, spread along a high ridge for about 1.5 km³. Pakistan's Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM) and Sindh's antiquities directorate describe its pyramidal tombs as those of Baloch warrior families who settled in the area in the 17th and 18th centuries^2,3. Other sources disagree: Archnet names the Baluchi and Burfat tribes and spreads the tombs over the 15th to 19th centuries, while the researcher Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro calls Chaukhandi the village near Karachi where dignitaries of the Jokhia (Jokhio) tribe are buried^5,6. Tombs of the same type are found in southern Balochistan, at Lasbela, and in Thatta district³.

Architecture scholars at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore note that this chaukhandi type is specific to Sindh and Balochistan, and that such tombs are known locally as gharriyoon ('the chiselled ones'), pathar-jun-qabroon or rumis⁴. They observe that, despite Islamic reluctance about images, figures are the main theme in the ornament of Sindhi tombs from the 14th to the early 19th century, and that the chaukhandi tombs are the most notable examples⁴. Pakistan placed the Chaukhandi graveyard on its tentative list for World Heritage on 14 December 1993¹. The site is federal property, protected under the Antiquities Act of 1975².

Each grave is built of carved sandstone slabs stacked in stepped tiers, which gives it its pyramidal shape; Akhtar and her co-authors write that the number of tiers reflected the social, political and economic standing of the dead^2,4. Most graves stand on raised platforms, and each platform with its group of graves was a family burial ground^1,3. A platform may carry a single grave or many³. Only a few groups stand under pillared canopies, which UNESCO's tentative-list entry describes as finished in Hindu style^1,3.

The slabs are carved in relief with human and other figural designs as well as conventional patterns^1,2. Men's graves show a horseman with his weapons, a shield, sword, bow and arrow, and some have a boss at the northern end of the top slab, carved to represent or hold the turban of the dead man^1,2,3. Women's graves are marked by jewellery: necklaces, bracelets, anklets and rings^1,2,3.