"The Land of Five Waters (پنجاب,) referring to the rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas.

Punjab (/pʌnˈdʒɑːb/; Punjabi, Urdu: پنجاب, pronounced [pənˈd͡ʒɑːb] ⓘ) is a province of Pakistan. Located in the central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest by population. Lahore is the capital and the largest city of the province. Other major cities include Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Multan.
It is bordered by the Pakistani provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the north-west, Balochistan to the south-west and Sindh to the south, as well as Islamabad Capital Territory to the north-west and Azad Kashmir to the north. It shares an international border with the Indian states of Rajasthan and Punjab to the east and Indian-administered Kashmir to the north-east. Punjab is the most fertile province of the country as the Indus River and its four major tributaries Ravi, Jhelum, Chenab and Sutlej flow through it.
The province forms the bulk of the transnational Punjab region, divided in 1947 among Pakistan and India.[7] The provincial capital is Lahore - a cultural and cosmopolitan centre of Pakistan. Punjab is also the world's fifth-most populous subnational entity, and the most populous outside of China and India.
Punjab is Pakistan's most industrialized province, with the industrial sector comprising 24 percent of the province's gross domestic product.[8] It is known for its relative prosperity,[9] and has the lowest rate of poverty among all Pakistani provinces.[10][b] However, a clear divide is present between the northern and southern regions of the province;[9] with northern Punjab being more developed than south Punjab.[11][12] Punjab is also one of the most urbanized regions of South Asia, with approximately 40 percent of its population being concentrated in urban areas.[13]
Punjabi Muslims, predominantly adhering to Sunni Islam, are natives of the province, comprising nearly 98 percent of the total population.[14] Punjabis are the third-largest predominantly Islam-adhering Muslim ethnicity in the world, globally,[15] after Arabs[16] and Bengalis.[17] The Punjabi culture has been strongly influenced by Sufism, with numerous Sufi shrines spread across the province.[18] Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, was born in the town of Nankana Sahib, near Lahore.[19][20][21] Punjab is also the site of the Katas Raj Temples, which feature prominently in Hindu mythology.[22] Several of the World Heritage Sites listed by UNESCO are located in Punjab, including the Shalimar Gardens, the Lahore Fort, the archaeological excavations at Taxila, and the Rohtas Fort, among others.[23]
Etymology
The name Punjab is of Persian origin, with its two parts (پنج, panj, 'five' and آب, āb, 'water') being cognates of the Sanskrit words पञ्‍च, pañca, 'five' and अप्, áp, 'water', of the same meaning.[24][25] The word pañjāb is thus calque of Indo-Aryan pañca-áp and means "The Land of Five Waters", referring to the rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas.[26] All are tributaries of the Indus River, the Sutlej being the largest. References to a land of five rivers may be found in the Mahabharata, in which one of the regions is named as Panchanada (Sanskrit: पञ्चनद, romanized: pañca-nada, lit. 'five rivers').[27][28] Earlier, Punjab was known as Sapta Sindhu or Hapta Hendu in Avesta, translating into "The Land of Seven Rivers", with the other two being Indus and Kabul which are included in the greater Punjab region.[29] The ancient Greeks referred to the region as Pentapotamía (Greek: Πενταποταμία), which has the same meaning as that of Punjab.[30][31][32]
History