TDF MagnifiScience Center’s Digital Heritage Trails project brings 5 threatened archaeological sites back to life
Part of the Lost Cities of the Indus Delta exhibition is pictured here. SOURCE: LA TRIBUNE EXPRESS
A striking exhibition is on display at the TDF MagnifiScience Center in Karachi. Launched today (Saturday), the exhibition highlights the ancient maritime civilization of the Indus Delta and the environmental threats that jeopardize its future.
“The Lost Cities of the Indus Delta,” the product of a two-year Digital Heritage Trails Project (DHTP), uses 3D modeling, interactive exhibits and storytelling to bring to life five endangered archaeological sites that once thrived as global trade hubs.
According to event management, the exhibition will be a permanent installation at the MagnifiScience Centre.
An interactive virtual reality exhibition for Lahiri Bandar, a famous port town located in present-day Mirpur Sakro Taluka, Thatta.
“This project has brought history, science and learning under one roof,” said Favad Soomro, CEO, Dawood Foundation, and urged the youth to reconnect with the past to become responsible citizens of tomorrow. It constitutes a valuable tool to help the public understand the importance of safeguarding heritage, he added.
Part of the interactive exhibition presenting an archaeological enigma
Amer Bazl Khan, director of maritime research and project leader, described the exhibition as the culmination of years of research aimed at transforming complex data into accessible public experiences.
“We have documented how the centers of gravity have changed over the centuries. Before Karachi, it was the Indus Delta,” Khan said, explaining how an 11th-century port, once India’s fourth largest, has now shrunk significantly.
A magnetic map puzzle of Banbhore, a port city that once linked South Asia to Arabia
Merging science with history
Khan further highlighted the human aspect of the exhibition, showcasing the resilience of the people who once thrived in the region. “This project represents years of fieldwork and research and aims to showcase the trade networks, cultures and daily maritime life of the Indus Delta.”
As part of this initiative, high-resolution 3D models of threatened sites and two documentaries, The lost cities of the Indus Delta And Cursed Waterswere produced. These films have been translated into multiple languages, including Pakistani Sign Language, with the help of Deaf Reach Karachi, ensuring greater accessibility.
British Deputy High Commissioner Lance Domm said: “It’s important to have exhibitions like these because they give children something fun to do as well as being educational. »
“It’s important to have informal learning spaces.” Favad Soomro said: “Our city absolutely needs more.”
The Delta decreasing
The opening of the exhibition coincided with the release of Cursed Watersa documentary that looks at the environmental decline of the Indus Delta. The documentary reveals alarming statistics about shrinking borders and the devastating effects of water scarcity.
The Indus Delta has been reduced from 13,000 square kilometers in 1833 to just 1,667 square kilometers today. Freshwater flow has fallen from 150 million acre-feet a century ago to less than 10 million today.
Local landowner Gulab Shah summed up the crisis by saying: “Our elders said we live in a country where the river flows into the sea. Now we say the sea flows into the river,” poisoning the land with salt and leaving it unusable.
Between 500,000 and 600,000 people have been displaced due to lack of clean water and loss of agricultural land due to rising salt levels. For those displaced to the outskirts of urban centers like Karachi, the move has eroded their cultural identity and social dignity.
The documentary also shows how traditional community structures and privacy once afforded to women from rural villages have disappeared in the city, and many children from these displaced families are now forced to beg on the streets.
Watch the documentary Cursed Waters here:
Ahsan Zafar Syed, CEO of Engro Corporation, said: “Despite what we are achieving today, whatever we do will not be sustainable without a focus on human development, as Pakistan is currently ranked 168 out of 193 on the Human Development Index.
British High Commissioner Jane Marriott said at the end of the ceremony that Karachi is facing rising sea levels due to climate change, which is directly contributing to the disappearance of Delta communities and cultural heritage sites. Speaking about the change and whether anything can be done to prevent this, she said: “I have to believe the answer is yes.”
