When you enter the sprawling premises of Empress Market located on Preedy Street in Saddar, Karachi the tangy scent of spices is the first thing which wafts into your nostrils. One gets a surreal feeling of being transported into time and stumbling onto a Medieval Market place with carts being loaded and unloaded; donkey carts laden with golden hay; hefty sacks of assorted dry fruits piled high; coarse bags of spices in vivid colours of the sunset orange, red, yellow.

Making your way through the courtyard one passes a kaleidoscope of people ranging from filthy labourers to pot-bellied shop keepers to scrawny coolies and posh aunties with their drivers in tow.

The first building at the market plays home to all from two-strapped sandals to bathroom utensils to kitchen crockery, grocery items and household wares the versatility is unimaginable. There are unique items which only this market can boast of Where can you come across men who display oils which promise a panacea to every pain, and insecticides which claim to vanquish lizards, roaches and anything that crawls? Where can you find chunks of glistening rock salt and tiny one-gulp tea cup and kettle sets? Yes, it is at the Empress Market.

The second building holds the butcher house and the stench of raw meat and fresh blood takes a while to get accustomed to. There are lush green veggies arranged meticulously in baskets and thaalis, beans in assorted sizes and colours and every imaginable fruit (even pumpkins) which exude a concoction of sharp perfumes which mingle with the pollution spewing from the buses outside the market premises.

One can`t help but gaze at the most striking feature of this Indo-Gothic building which is its looming clock tower which is 140 feet high with a large chiming clock, and skeleton iron dials placed on all four sides.

Historically, the place where this huge building now stands has a bloody history. It was the very spot where native sepoys were strapped to the mouth of cannons and blown to pieces as punishment for their involvement in the first war of independence in 1857.

Empress Market is named in commemoration of the jubilee of Queen of England who at the time of construction of this building (1884-1889) was also the `Empress` of India. Designed by the Karachi municipal engineer, James Strachan, it is one of the most salient landmarks of Karachi.

The foundation stone of the building was laid on November 10, 1884 by Sir James Fergusson, the then Governor of Bombay, and was inaugurated on March 21, 1889. At the time of inauguration, the Empress Market had accommodation for 280 shops. Mr Pitchard, the then commissioner, at the opening ceremony pointed out that only one market (Crawford Market of Mumbai) in the whole British Presidency surpassed the Empress Market in beauty and grace. This was a big tribute to Empress Market at that time.

Even today, in the age of air conditioned super markets, this impressive, rambling market has a quaint charm of its own proving to be a one stop shop for a multitude of people. So, if you desire to find anything under the sun brought together under the awning of one market, then this surely is the Empress of all markets.