Sometimes half the fun of seeing places is getting there. Uch Shariff is a small collection of beautiful Sufi Shrines in Pakistan. They are on the ‘tentative’ list of UNESCO heritage sites. Put simply we are talking about a small group of shrines kinda in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of a little town called Uch in the Pakistani Punjab.

To get there it was quite an adventure swapping mini-buses a couple of times. There were plenty of interesting and friendly people on my journey, including and father beaming with pride about his baby, very happy to have his photo taken.

At Uch I had to find a little tourist office to get a permit to see the shrine and to get a guide. I was the only tourist through at that time of day, or even possibly for the whole day. The area of the tombs/shrines is not that far from the centre of town, and there are many graves there too (hardly surprising) but it is the three blue shrines that people come to see.

They have a varying level of ‘intactness’ (crikey I wrote that sure that I was making up a word and yet spell check says it’s fine!). The most intact shrine is that of Bibi Jawindi. It’s still mostly there. About half the middle shrine stands today and very little of the other one.

The net only appears to have minimal information on the tombs of Uch Shariff, but really it’s one of those places where you can stand, breath, and just marvel at the fact that you’re at a beautiful location which really appears to be in the middle of nowhere. The blue mosaic is really a marvel.

Uch Shariff is remote, special, and a wonderful little place to explore and discover.  Thanks for reading –  May the Journey Never End!