Chiniot is about 160 km west of Lahore. It is famous for its woodwork — furniture, decorative pieces and even the carved wooden bodies of trucks, buses and wagons. It is linked with the rest of the country by road and rail.
The town stands on the left bank of the river Chenab, among low rocky hills that rise unexpectedly from the plains. Its craftsmen have been carving wood and inlaying brass for centuries, and Chiniot carpenters are said to have worked on Mughal buildings such as the Taj Mahal.
Places to see
Shahi Masjid
A Mughal mosque built in the reign of Shah Jahan by his minister Nawab Saadullah Khan, a native of Chiniot, with fine stonework and painted interiors.
Umar Hayat Mahal
A five-storey wooden palace built in the 1920s and 1930s by Sheikh Umar Hayat, its rooms covered in intricate carving and painted ceilings. It now houses a library.
Woodcarving workshops
Visit the workshops where carvers make richly decorated beds, chairs, chests and screens, much of it by hand.
The Chenab and the hills
The river and the rocky hills around the town make a fine setting, with views over the plains from the higher ground.
Good to know
- What to buy
- Carved furniture, wooden boxes and decorative pieces with brass inlay — workshops can make pieces to order.
- Getting there
- Chiniot is between Faisalabad and Sargodha, about an hour’s drive from Faisalabad.
- When to go
- October to March. Summers are very hot.
Header photo: Inside the Shahi Masjid — Murtaza Syed, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons