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Sindh
The southern province of Sindh takes its name from Sindhu, an old Sanskrit name for the Indus River which flows down its center making fertile an otherwise arid, barren land. The province has three distinct landscapes: the lush, irrigated plains along the river, the sparsely populated deserts on either side of the irrigated belt, and the mangrove swamps of the Indus delta. It is flat except at its western edge, where the Kirthar Hills form its border with Balochistan. The climate is pleasant in winter, with temperatures ranging from 10° to 30°C (50° to 85°F), and hot in summer, when the mercury moves between 25° and 50°C (75° and 120°F).
The irrigated alluvial soil forms some of Pakistan's best farmland. As far as canals can carry water from the Indus, farmers grow wheat, rice, millet, pulses, oil-seeds, cotton, sugar cane, chilies and such fruits as bananas, mangoes, dates and vanities of citrus. Most of the 70 percent of Sindh's rural population that live by agriculture are tenant farmers tilling soil belonging to feudal landlords of Balochi descent. Their mediaeval way of life has changed little over the centuries, despite some mechanization. The tenants dare not vote against their landlords in elections and little gets done without the consent of the strong landowning families such as the Bhuttos.
The deserts begin immediately the irrigation ends the line between green fields and sandy scrubland strikingly abrupt. Desert tribes, some settled around wells, some nomadic, eke out a bare subsistence by breeding camels and goats, growing pulses and millet, and hiring themselves out as migrant laborers.
The Indus delta is a vast marshy tract-stretching southeast from Karachi to the Indian border some 250 kilometers (150 miles) away. Through its myriad sluggish channels meandering around thousands of mangrove islands, the Indus empties into the Arabian Sea. Each year, the river deposits millions of tons of silt in the coastal waters, extending the delta and enriching the marine food chain. Fishing is the principal occupation on the coast, providing Karachi's restaurants with the seafood for which they are justly famous.
The history of Sindh goes back some 5,000 years to the Indus Civilization, which was contemporaneous with the better-known civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Archaeologists have identified some 400 Indus Civilization cities, scattered from Kabul to Delhi.