Quetta
— — the fruit garden inside a ring of stone.
Not only on a wall.
“The capital of Balochistan, sitting at about 1,680 metres in a bowl of mountains in the far west of Pakistan. Four ranges close the valley: Chiltan to the southwest, Takatu to the northeast, Murdar to the east, Zarghun to the north. The summer light is dry and clean. The orchards on the valley floor grow apples, apricots, pomegranates, and the city's famous pine nuts. Winter brings snow on the rim. Pashtun, Baloch, and Hazara neighbourhoods each keep their own bread.
Quetta, 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.
Quetta is the capital of Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan by area, and sits in a high valley at roughly 1,680 metres in the far west of the country, about 600 kilometres southwest of Islamabad. The valley is closed by four mountain ranges: Chiltan, Takatu, Murdar, and Zarghun, the last rising to 3,578 metres. The city's population is over 1.2 million. The name comes from the Pashto word kwatta, meaning a fort. Quetta is the chief city of the Bolan Pass route between the Indus basin and the Iranian plateau.
Quetta's high elevation gives it a cold semi-arid climate, unusual for Pakistan. Summer days reach about 35°C but cool sharply at night. Winter sees regular snow, and January lows average below freezing. The dry mountain air and irrigation from the surrounding springs support orchards that earned the valley its old name as the fruit garden of Pakistan: apples, apricots, peaches, pomegranates, almonds, and the chilghoza pine nut harvested from the Suleiman Range. Spring blossom through April is the year's signature view.
On 31 May 1935 a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Quetta, levelling most of the city and killing an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 people, among the deadliest seismic events in South Asian history. The British colonial administration rebuilt the cantonment on a wider grid with low buildings, much of which still stands. The Hazara community, descended from refugees who arrived in the late nineteenth century from central Afghanistan, anchors the Hazara Town and Marriabad neighbourhoods west of the centre, with their own bazaars and bakeries.