Pakistan is located in the heart of Asia and has made a name for itself in various fields including science and sports while its diverse terrain from the north to the south makes it a must-visit country for tourists.

Here are 17 interesting facts about Pakistan that will make every Pakistani proud.

1. A Pakistani family has broken the record for having the most birthdays on one day: 9. Ameer Ali Mangi's family consists of his wife Khudija and their seven children, Sindhoo, Sasui, Sapna, Aamir, Ambar, Ammar and Ahmar who are between 17 and 28 years old. They have two sets of twins, two daughters born in 1998, and two sons born in 2003.

2. Pakistan has the largest canal-based irrigation system in the world

3.Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was founded on October 23, 1946 as Orient Airways. The airline was nationalised on January 10, 1955. PIA also holds an unbeaten record for the shortest flight time between Karachi and London in 1962. The plane completed the flight in six hours, 43 minutes and 55 seconds

4.Pakistan made history when Mohammed Ilyas passed the civil judge exam when he was 20 years and 9 months old. He became the youngest civil judge in the world.

 

5.The ‘Khewra Salt Mine’ in Pakistan is the second largest and oldest salt mine in the world

6. Pakistan has the only fertile desert in the world – the Tharparkar desert – located in Sindh province

 

 

7. The world’s longest glacial system outside the polar regions – the Biafo Glacier – is in Pakistan.

 

 

8. The largest earth-filled dam in the world (and fifth largest by structural volume) is the ‘Tarbela Dam’ on the Indus river in Pakistan. The dam was built in 1968 and 1976. The dam is 143.26 meters high and 2,743.2 meters long.

 

 

9. Out of the total land area in Pakistan, 25% is under agricultural cultivation. Pakistan irrigates three times more land area than Russia.

 

 

10. The once world’s largest man-made forest is in Pakistan – the Changa Manga forest (12,423 acres in area). It is named after two brother dacoits, the Changa Manga forest was originally planted in 1866 by British foresters.

 

 

11. Pakistan is also blessed with Jahangir Khan, a former World No. 1 professional squash player. Between 1981 and 1986, he won 555 matches consecutively (the longest winning streak by any athlete in top-level professional sports as recorded by Guinness World Records).

 

 

12. MM Alam, late Air Commodore from Pakistan, is known to have shot five planes in less than a minute during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

 

Picture credit: Media Point

 

13. Gwadar port is the largest deep sea port in the world, located on the southwestern Arabian Sea along the coastline of Balochistan, Pakistan. The port has an area of 64,000 square meters and has a depth of more than 14 meters.

 

 

14. Benazir Bhutto became the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan, and of any Muslim nation.

 

 

15. Makli Hill located in Thatta, Pakistan is home to over half a million tombs and graves. It is one of the largest necropolis (a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments) in the world. The tombs were built over a period of 400 years between the 14th and 18th centuries

 

 

16. The Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan is one of the world’s largest mosques. It was commissioned by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1671 and its construction completed in 1673. However, the mosque was largely used for military purposes during the Sikh era and the British rule for many years until the independence of Pakistan when it was restored to its original condition

 

 

17. Sohail Abbas, a Pakistani field hockey defender, is the highest goal scorer in the history of field hockey, with his current goal tally at 348