Annemarie Schimmel in her foreword to the book "Culture Shock! Pakistan" has called Pakistan "A castle with a thousand doors", for one can enter it from many sides. Pakistan stretches from Arabian sea to the high mountains of Central Asia. It covers an area of 803,940 square kilometers (about 310,321 square miles); three times that of United Kingdom or about twice the size of California.
The country lies between Iran to the west, Afghanistan to the northwest, India to the east and China to the northeast. Pakistan is divided into four provinces: Baluchistan, North-West Frontier Province (also referred to as NWFP), Punjab and Sind. The Northern areas (Gilgit, Hunza, Chilas and Skardu) and Azad Kashmir were officially assigned to India at partition but were soon liberated by Pakistan.
Geographically Pakistan falls into three main regions: the mountainous north; the vast but sparsely populated plateau of Baluchistan; and the Punjab and Sind plains of the Indus river and its five main tributaries.
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