The Mohatta Palace is located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It was built by Shivratan Chandraratan Mohatta, a Hindu Marwari businessman from modern day Rajasthan in India,in 1927, as his summer home.
For ancient mariners, the delta of the Indus served as an important geographical landmark. Karachi continued as an entrepot for trade along both land and sea routes for several centuries, until the British began to expand their colonial administration under the aegis of the East India Company. Recognising the commercial and strategic importance of Karachi as a means of access to the entire north western flank of the sub-continent and beyond it, to Russia, they annexed Sindh in 1843.
The presence and authority of the British were reflected in the architecture they adopted for army cantonments, municipal buildings, churches and formal residences in Karachi. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw new styles of architecture in the sub-continent that were a fusion of European, Victorian, Gothic and Mughal elements suited to local forms and materials. Karachi rose to prominence at an astonishingly rapid pace, attracting people from the north west, the Iranian plateau, Turkey and Central Asia and from the south east, especially Kutch, Bombay and Rajasthan.
