Pir Ghaib Waterfall is situated in the Bolan Valley, from
Quetta
Quetta is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is the ninth largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 1.6 million in 2024. It is situated in the south-west of the country, lying in a ...
, in
Balochistan
Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region o ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
.
The waterfall cascades down rocky mountainside, making its way through many streams and ponds among the shady palm trees.
History
Legend relates that Pir Ghaib and his sister, the venerable Bibi Nani, arrived here to convert the locals in the early days of Islam. But the fire worshippers sent an army after the pious pair. In the gorge of the Bolan, the siblings split; Bibi Nani went down the gorge (her purported tomb is under a bridge about 15 km downstream) while her brother fled into this arid landscape with the army in hot pursuit. At the head of the gorge, seeing that he was blocked by the rock wall, the saint prayed to almighty to be rescued. He cleaved the rock to receive the holy man. So, he was known as ''Pir Ghaib – The Invisible Saint''.
Local Hindus worship Pir Ghaib as Mahadev. But, long before the Bolan gorge had rung with
Vedic
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...
hymns or invocations of the Pir Ghaib, travellers and traders from the Indus Valley would have stopped at this spring sacred to their own gods on the first leg of their long journey to Mesopotamian marts. As the Vedic God ''Shivaderives'' from an earlier Indus Valley deity, and as the 5000 year old goddess Nania evolves into Bibi Nani or Durga, so too did the Pir Ghaib develop from an early Indus Valley god. But until the Indus script is understood we will not know which from this pantheon was celebrated for walking into rock walls.
See also
*
List of waterfalls
This list of notable waterfalls of the world is sorted by continent, then country, then province, state or territory. A waterfall is included if it is at least tall and has an existing Wikipedia article, or it is considered historically sig ...
*
List of waterfalls in Pakistan
Most of the waterfalls in Pakistan are found in the northern regions of the country, specially in the Hazara and Kohistan regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in its administrative portions of the Kashmir, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. This l ...
References
{{commons category, Pir Ghaib Waterfall
Waterfalls of Pakistan
Landforms of Balochistan (Pakistan)
Tourist attractions in Balochistan, Pakistan