Pakistan

Pakistan is a country in South Asia. It shares borders with India to the east, Afghanistan and Iran to the west, and China to the north. To the south is the Arabian Sea. Pakistan is the fifth most populous country in the world, with about 240 million people. Its capital is Islamabad, but the biggest city is Karachi.

The land of Pakistan is full of contrasts. In the north are some of the tallest mountains on Earth, including parts of the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush ranges. K2, the world's second-highest peak, rises 28,251 feet on the border with China. That is almost five and a half miles straight up. In the south and east are hot plains watered by the Indus River. The Indus flows nearly 2,000 miles from Tibet to the sea, and almost all of Pakistan's farms depend on it.

The Indus Valley is also where one of the world's oldest civilizations began. About 4,500 years ago, people built large cities there, like Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. These cities had straight streets, brick houses, and even covered drains for waste water. That was thousands of years before most of the world had anything like it. Scholars still cannot fully read the writing these people left behind.

Pakistan became its own country on August 14, 1947. For almost 200 years before that, the region had been part of British India. When the British left, they split the land into two countries: mostly Hindu India and mostly Muslim Pakistan. This split is called the Partition. It caused one of the largest movements of people in history. About 15 million people crossed the new borders, and hundreds of thousands died in the violence that followed.

Today, around 96 percent of Pakistanis are Muslim, and Islam shapes daily life. The national language is Urdu, but most people also speak a regional language such as Punjabi, Sindhi, or Pashto. Cricket is the most popular sport by far, and Pakistan has won the Cricket World Cup. Food in Pakistan is famous for its rich flavors. Biryani, kebabs, and flatbreads like naan are eaten across the country.

Pakistan faces serious challenges, including poverty, flooding made worse by climate change, and tensions with India. But it is also a young country in another sense: more than half its people are under 22 years old. That generation will decide what Pakistan looks like next.