Days remaining to
Independence Day -
August 14

The massive walls of the tomb are faced externally with Mullagori white marble set in high relief imitating the brick design, with the result that the whole face appears to have been divided into little squares. This device is adopted to remove the effect of a blank wall of such a hugh size, which has no other decoration but only the arch way over the top corner projections to divert the mind. Eight steps, flagged with Naushera pink marble, lead up to the tomb floor from the platform. The dome that covers the top is contained within the corner projections, which seemingly keep it in position against the buffets of the stormy winds. Between the projections, the drum, which is separated by a horizontal band from the dome, is further relieved by a graceful combination of three horse-shoe arched windows derived from the early Muslim architecture. The arches are resting on facetted marble columns and its interior is filled with marble screen copying various geometric forms, but the most dominating is the octagon. The inside of these windows is fitted with teakwood frame to take in glass panes and to keep away the intruding birds. These triple windows have further lightened the bulk of the dome and they impart an additional grace to the otherwise plain white drum. The interior of the tomb chamber has its floor paved with Mullagori white marble, interspersed here and there with Quetta black marble. There is a dado of block marble of about a foot in height. The interior cell is also faced with white marble, arranged in rectangles, seperated by green onyx uprights set alternately. The gallery walls are all of white mosaic, but the dome above the gallery is turned blue by the blue tile facing. This colour gives the impression of a blue sky. This soft colour along with the gallery, which acts like a basal collar of the domb, imparts to the tomb chamber a heavenly solemnity, which is well deserved by the Great Leader buried here.

Courtesy: Prof. Ahmad Hasan Dani, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad