I
was born and brought up in Karachi. However, I considered myself unfortunate
for not being able to explore the majestic building from British Era-Empress
Market. The market from outside always gave me a fancy gaze and I always
tempted to go inside. I thought that after all these 24 years without a single tour
of this 127 years old marketplace; it was the high time for me to pay this place a visit. And
I did!
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The majestic building.
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It is no wonder Empress Market is perhaps one of the most sought after markets of Karachi. Many people from all
over the city come to this bazaar for shopping, despite its locality in one of
the most crowded areas of the city where
commodities sold here everything from fruits, vegetables, dry fruits, condiments
and meat to stationery materials, pet shops and textiles. Fruits and vegetables
available there were one of the freshest products of the country and were sold
at the most nominal prices as compared to the rest of the markets in Karachi,
other several difficult to find items such as mushrooms, asparagus, broccoli,
fennel or avocados were easily available at reasonable prices too.
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| All the spices were available here. |
While walking by the different shops, I encountered a place which was quite packed as I went near to see what was happening; it was a small vendor for oils. The seller had a wooden handmade oil press and he was taking out the Almond oil. It was a pure oil and was not too pricey. I got coconut oil for myself with a number of essential oils including Lavender oil, Tea-tree oil, Rosemary oil, Pumpkin oil, Peppermint oil, and Jojoba oil.
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| Handmade oil press |
In
addition, it has a different section for butchers where one can get meat at
reasonable prices and all the organs were available too. However, it was too
stinky and very low hygienic for us to survive barely after few minutes and we
had to rush outside to breathe some fresh air.
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| Butchers busy with their business. Image by https://thekarachiwalla.com/ |
It’s a fact that no matter how modern the world becomes, these old places have their own charm and they add beauty to our city. From royalty to ruins…the journey of the place was spectacular and there is no debate in the fact that Empress Market will always remain the Empress of its kind in the heart of Karachi and will continue to impress its visitors.
Such a brilliant piece of writing and choice of photos of Empress Market. This brings back long-lost memories from my childhood as I grew up in Karachi, a city that was cleaner, less crowded and safer than today.I wish to come back and see the city of lights in its original shape. Please do visit more historical places and blog about them.
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