Rohri ( Sindhi: روهڙي; ) is a city of

Sukkur District Sukkur District (, ) is a district in Sindh Province in Pakistan. Two districts have been split off from the territory of Sukkur: Shikarpur District, Shikarpur in 1977 and Ghotki District, Ghotki in 1993. According to 2023 Pakistani census populat ...

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

province, Pakistan. It is located on the east bank of the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayas, Himalayan river of South Asia, South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northw ...

, located directly across from

Sukkur Sukkur is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh along the western bank of the Indus River, directly across from the historic city of Rohri. Sukkur is the List of cities in Sindh by population, third largest city in Sindh after Karachi and H ...

, the third largest city in Sindh. Rohri town is the administrative headquarters of Rohri Taluka, and

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

of Sukkur District with which it forms a metropolitan area. Its capture marked the beginning of Muslim rule in India under Muhammad ibn al-Qasim in 711 CE, when it was named Aror.

History

Rohri is west of the ancient city of Aror. Roruka, as capital of the Sauvira Kingdom, is mentioned as an important trading center in early Buddhist literature. Little is known about the city's history prior to the Arab invasion in the eighth century, but Aror was the capital of the Rai dynasty and then the Brahman dynasty that once ruled northern Sindh. In 711 CE, Aror was captured by the army of Muslim general

Muhammad bin Qasim Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Thaqafī (; –) was an Arabs, Arab military commander in service of the Umayyad Caliphate who led the Muslim conquest of Sindh (and Punjab, part of ancient Sindh), inaugurating the Umayyad campaigns in India. His m ...

. In 962 CE, a massive earthquake struck the region, causing the course of the Indus River to shift. Aror was re-founded as Rohri afterwards. By the 12th Century Rohri and Sukkur had been incorporated in dominion of the Bhati Rajputs. Rohri served as a busy port along the Indus by the 1200s, and was a major trading centre for agricultural produce.

Climate

Rohri has a

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''BWh'') with extremely hot summers and mild winters. Rohri is very dry, with the little rain it receives mostly falling in the

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

season from July to September. The average annual rainfall of Rohri is 105.8 mm as per 1991-2020 period. The highest annual rainfall ever is 669.4 mm, recorded in 2022 and the lowest annual rainfall ever is 0 mm as it was a record dry period in the city in 1941.

References

External links

The Archaeology of Rohri
{{Authority control Sukkur District Metropolitan areas of Pakistan Populated places in Sukkur District