Downtown – Cultural Capital

The Downtown Srinagar is the cultural capital of Srinagar. It houses the patron Saint of Kashmir. Besides, the shrines of all other prominent saints lie in the vicinity of Downtown Srinagar. The design and layout of homes around here give visitors a sense of the heritage and culture of the close-knit Kashmiri people. The winding lanes of this packed part of Srinagar has homes built so close to each other that they often share walls or even masonry. It was once a fortified city which has been the capital of Kashmir for more than a thousand years. It houses a continuous living civilization of around two thousand years-the second longest surviving river civilization after Varanasi. Kings have come, made it the capital, lost battles, won battles, and administered it in their own way. It was once proudly called Shahr-e-Kashmir, the city of Kashmir. Visiting this part of Srinagar shows the stark contrast from other parts where residences have large areas to themselves, but with the advent of advancement, a lot of people left Downtown city to live amongst the pacific lots in the Civil areas of Srinagar. Whoever had money or position preferred to live in colonies like Hyderpora, Peer Bagh, Baghat, Sanat Nagar, and Chanapora. The result was that downtown Srinagar lost its influential lots to the transformation. The thing of irony is that the roads have innumerable potholes. Not many tourists prefer to visit downtown Srinagar as they do not consider it worth visiting. We have failed to promote Downtown as the cultural capital of Srinagar. It should have been the first place of preference for the tourists but as destiny is it is the last. We cannot forget the heartbeat of our history and culture. As a top priority, the government needs to take serious action to highlight Downtown as the main tourist attraction of Srinagar.