Lake Saiful Muluk

Location

Saiful Muluk is located in the Mansehra District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about 9 km north of Naran, in the northern part of the Kaghan Valley. Malika Parbat, the highest peak in the valley is near the lake.

The lake is accessible from the nearby town of Naran during the summer season but access during winter is limited, as heavy snowfall and landslides threaten to cutoff the lake from other regions.

Physical features

Saiful Muluk was formed by glacial moraines that blocked the water of the stream passing through the valley. The Kaghan Valley was formed in the greater Pleistocene Period dating back almost 300,000 years when the area was covered with ice. Rising temperatures and receding glaciers left a large depression where glaciers once stood. Melting water collected into the lake.

Ecology

The lake has rich eco-diversity and holds many species of blue-green algae. Large brown trout are found in the lake, up to about seven kilograms. About 26 species of vascular plant exist in the area, with Asteraceae the most commonly found species. Other species commonly found in the region are: Ranunculaceae, Compositae, Cruciferae, Gramineae, Apiaceae, Leguminosae, Scrophulariaceae and Polygonaceae.

Folklore

The Lake Saiful Muluk is named after a legendary prince from the tale titled Saiful Muluk, later on put into poem form by the Sufi poet Mian Muhammad Bakhsh. It tells the story of the Egyptian Prince Saiful Malook who fell in love with a fairy princess named Princess Badi ul-Jamal at the lake.

The Story of Prince Saiful Maluk () is an Arabic fable, a story of love between a prince and a fairy. It is considered a later addition to the One Thousand and One Nights collection of Arabic fables, and manuscripts of the story are dated to the 17th century. In South Asia, the story was put into Punjabi verse by 19th-century poet and mystic Mian Muhammad Bakhsh. It has also been retold in numerous languages such as Balochi, Bengali, English, Urdu and Punjabi. Similarly, according to Turkish scholarship, the narrative is "widely known" in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Tatarstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Taranchi, and Bashkortostan.

According to the folklore, Saiful Maluk (whose name means 'Sword of the Kings') was a prince of Egypt. He had significant wealth which he had inherited from his forefathers. The treasure bore two seals: one depicting Saiful Maluk and the other depicting Badi-ul-Jamala (also rendered as Bediülcemal). One night, Prince Saiful Maluk saw in a dream a lake and a fairy. He got up and went to tell his dream to his father, asking him about the place and the fairy. His father told him that he can't meet the fairy as she isn't human, unlike him. However, the longer the prince recollected his dream, the more he was overwhelmed with love for the fairy.

Gallery

Hover the mouse click or tap on the following images to see their captions. File:Lake Saiful Malook naran 05.jpg|Lake Saiful Muluk under clouds File:Saif ul Malook, House of Fairies.jpg|A view of lake in Wortez File:Saif ul malook lake-01.jpg|Lake Saiful Muluk in a sunny day File:Lake-Saiful-Malook.jpg|A full view of Lake Saif-ul-Muluk File:Saif-ul-malook naran valley.jpg|Lake Saif ul Malook in May 2017 File:The Frozen Saif Ul Malook Lake.jpg|The lake freezes over in winter File:Saif Ul Muluk.jpg|alt=Saif Ul Muluk|Lake Saif ul Muluk in December 2012 File:Lake Saif ul Malook, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa.jpg|Tourist point with Lake File:Boat in Saif ul Maluk Lake.jpg|A boat in Saiful Maluk Lake File:Lake Saif-Ul-Mulook.jpg|Lake Saif-Ul-Mulook, Kaghan Valley, Pakistan File:Saif_ul_Maluk_Lake_Pakistan_(Night_view)_Abdul_Majid.jpg|Lake Saif-Ul-Mulook at night File:Lake Saiful Malook on rainy morning.jpg|Lake Saiful Malook Pakistan

References

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