Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area The Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area is Pakistan's third most populous metropolitan area. It consists principally of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, along with smaller towns such as Murree, Wah Cantonment, Taxila, Gujar Khan, Golra Sharif, and several gated suburbs including Bahria Town and DHA Islamabad. Covering the Pothohar Plateau, the area consists of the ancient town of Taxila, which is a World Heritage Site; the colonial cities of Rawalpindi and Murree, and the modern planned city of Islamabad. The region received a major boom with the construction of Islamabad as the capital city of Pakistan in
Islamabad is home to twenty universities, including the Quaid-e-Azam University, PIEAS, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology and NUST. The city is one of the safest in Pakistan, and has an expansive surveillance system with 1,900 CCTV cameras. The name of the city, "Islamabad", is derived from two words, "Islam" and "abad", meaning "City of Islam". "Islam" is an Arabic word which refers to the religion of Islam and "-abad" is a Persian suffix indicating an "inhabited place" or "city". Islamabad Capital Territory, located on the Pothohar Plateau of the Punjab region, is considered one of the earliest sites of human settlement