Banbhore

Banbhore is a ruined city in the Pakistani province of Sindh and is located about 60 km southeast of Karachi. It is the remains of important medieval port city Daibul.

Excavations three cultural layers could be distinguished, ranging from first to 13th century: There is a Parthian, a Hindu and an early Islamic period. The city is identified with the Daibul known from written sources of the Indus estuary. Daibul is the first conquered by Muhammad ibn al -Qasim city of India, where the first mosque was built on the Indian subcontinent.

The important trade center with its valuable seaport was fortified under the Umayyads by a mighty city wall with three city gates. The mosque inside the city walls had a 34 × 35 meters, almost square in plan, its colonnades were built circumferentially around a central courtyard. It can be dated on the basis of an inscription in the year 727. The great houses of the city were built of stone, the smaller of mud brick.

The city is well known as the Periplus Maris Barbarikon in Erythraei and appears as a place of the silk trade with the name Arbi in Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, that was during the Middle Ages in the West already known.

In 2004 it was suggested that the city should be declared a World Heritage Site.