Downtown, popularly known as ''Shahar-e-Khaas'', is the largest and the most densely populated area of the city of

Srinagar Srinagar (; ) is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary ...

in the

union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The area is mostly located on the banks of

Jhelum river The Jhelum River is a major river in South Asia, flowing through India and Pakistan, and is the westernmost of the five major rivers of the Punjab region. It originates at Verinag and flows through the Indian-administered territory of Jammu ...

about from city center. The area is considered as the core point in the city as the first inhabitants of the Srinagar lived there. In general, the whole area to the north of city centre Lal Chowk is considered a part of downtown although some areas hold high significance. The Jamia Masjid, Srinagar and many other shrines are located here, which makes it the central spiritual, religious, political and moral center of whole

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

. The historical buildings and monuments found in the area reflect the design of old times. The residential homes are depicted to be constructed from late-19th century to early-20th century. Many key monuments like Jamia Masjid,

Khanqah-e-Moula The Khanqah-e-Moula, also known as Shah-e-Hamadan Masjid and Khanqah, is a Sunni mosque located in the Old City of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Situated on the right bank of the river Jhelum between the Fateh Kadal and Zaina Kadal ...

, Maharaj Gunj and shrines have been built by famous rulers of

History

The area was settled more than 2000 years ago in 3rd century BC by Raja Pravarsena. The area is the hub of the historical monuments made by the famous rulers of Kashmir. The historical monuments include Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta, Khanqah-e- Moula in Zana Kadal Aali Masjid in Eidgah, Maharaj Ganj tomb in Maharaj Ganj, Pathar (stone) Masjid in Nawabazar, and Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani's shrine in Khanyar. Moreover, the Roza Bal shrine is also situated in the area.

Geography

The area is located at at an elevation of 1585 meters above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

Demographics

Kashmiri is the mother tongue of the people in the area. People also use

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and English as secondary languages. It is estimated that the downtown has the population of half a million which is about 47% of the total population of

Srinagar district The Srinagar District is an administrative district of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and ...

Flood

In September 2014 the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir was hit by

floods A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

caused by torrential rainfall. The area of Downtown was least affected as compared to the rest of Srinagar, though close to the river, the people from other parts of Srinagar shifted to downtown for safety. Commercial buildings and residential homes and Government offices were shattered to nothing in the adjoining areas. People lost their lives and properties and the whole area was set on the economic back-foot. Schools, hospitals and other places of significant importance were damaged by the floods.

Education

There are a number of school and colleges in downtown Srinagar, including Islamia College of Science and Commerce,

Women's College Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male st ...

and Gandhi Memorial College.

Sub divisions

The areas which comprising Downtown Srinagar include:-

References

{{Kashmir Valley Srinagar Cities and towns in Srinagar district