Muzaffarabad
— — a city built where two rivers fold together.
Not only on a wall.
“The capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, set at the meeting of the Neelum and Jhelum rivers, with the foothills of the western Himalayas rising on every side. The Red Fort stands above the east bank, where the Neelum bends toward the older town. The October 2005 earthquake took much of the city; the rebuilt streets carry both the old line of the river bazaars and the newer roof tiles. Travellers pass through on the road north to the Neelum Valley.
Muzaffarabad, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Muzaffarabad is the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the Pakistan-administered portion of the wider Kashmir region. The city sits where the Neelum River pours into the Jhelum, about 138 kilometres northeast of Islamabad and at roughly 737 metres elevation. It was founded in 1646 by Sultan Muzaffar Khan of the Bomba dynasty, who gave the settlement his name. The city today functions as the administrative seat for Azad Kashmir's government and as the gateway to the Neelum Valley road that climbs north toward Athmuqam and Kel.
The two rivers define the geography of the city. The Neelum, called the Kishanganga upstream of the Line of Control, drains the high valleys of the Greater Himalayas. The Jhelum rises from springs near Verinag in the Kashmir Valley and runs west through Muzaffarabad on its long descent to the Punjab plains. The confluence sits at the foot of the old town and is one of the most photographed points in Azad Kashmir, with the white-water meeting line visible when the rivers are running clear in late autumn.
Two forts watch the rivers. The Red Fort, Ruttah Qila, stands above the east bank of the Neelum and was rebuilt by Maharaja Gulab Singh of the Dogra dynasty in 1846 on older Chak-era foundations. Across the river, the Black Fort, Kala Qila, marks an earlier defensive line. On 8 October 2005, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the region; the city was the closest major settlement to the epicentre. Much of the masonry came down. The forts and the riverfront have been slowly rebuilt in the years since.