NWFP
It runs for over
1,100 kilometres (680 miles) along the border
with Afghanistan. Peshawar is its capital, and
the
Vale of Peshawar, fertile and well watered by
the Kabul and Swat rivers, is its heart. This
was also the heart of the ancient kingdom of
Gandhara and is rich in archaeological remains.
The northern half of the province consists of
five river valleys running roughly parallel,
north to south: the Chitral, dir, Swat, Indus
and Kaghan. These valleys are on the northern
edge of the monsoon belt, so are fairly green
and partly wooded in their southern sections.
Northern Chitral and the upper regions of the
Indus Valley are mountainous deserts, where
cultivation depends entirely on irrigation. The
NWFP south of Peshawar is below the monsoon belt
and consists of low, rocky mountains and wide,
gravelly plains.
The warlike Pathans (or Pushtuns or Pukhtuns),
who live in NWFP and the adjoining areas of
Afghanistan, number about 17 million, making
themselves a race apart, a chosen people, and no
one has ever managed to subdue them. The Mughals,
Afghans, Sikhs, British and Russians have
suffered defeat at their hands. The Pathans are
divided into numerous sub-tribes and clans, each
defending its territory and honor. In addition,
the Pathans serve as Pakistan's first line of
defense along the Durand Line, the border drawn
in 1893 by Sir Mortimer Durand, then foreign
secretary of British India.
About 172 kms west of Rawalpindi/Islamabad by
road about half an hour by air lies the last
major town of Pakistan, the ancient and
legendary Peshawar, city of proud Pathans.
Peshawar the capital city of North-West Frontier
Province, is a frontier town, the meeting place
of the sub-continent and Central Asia. It is
also a place where ancient traditions jostle
with those of today, where the bazaar in the old
city has changed little in the past hundred
years except to become the neighbor of a modern
university, some modern hotels, several
international banks and one of the best museums
in Pakistan.
No other city is quite like old Peshawar. The
bazaar within the walls is like an American Wild
movie costumed as a Bible epic. Pathan tribesmen
stroll down the street with their hands hidden
within their shawls, their faces half obscured
by the loose ends of their turbans. (With his
piercing eyes and finely chiseled nose, the
Pathan must be the handsomest man on earth).
On the other side of the railway line is the
cantonment, its tree-lined streets wide and
straight as they pass gracious gardens.
Clubs, churches, schools, The Mall, Saddar
Bazaar and the airport round out the British
contribution to the modernization of Peshawar.
Further west is University Town, Peshawar's
newest section and the site of Peshawar
University.
A local book, Peshawar, History City of the
Frontier, by A.H. Dani and published by Khyber
Mail Press in 1969, makes a good first purchase.
It provides a detailed account of Peshawar's
history and a tour of this city walls and
ancient monuments.
 See Also:
Peshawar City
Back To Top
 History
The fortunes of Peshawar at inextricable
linked to the Khyber Pass, the eastern end of
which it guards. The pass seems to have been
little used in prehistoric times, and even in
early historic times it was generally shunned as
too narrow and thus too prone to ambush. Not
until the powerful Kushans invaded Gandhara and
pacified the area in the first century AD did
the Khyber become a popular trade route.
Peshawar owes its founding 2,000 years ago to
those same Kushans. In the second century AD,
Kanishka, the greatest of the Kushan kings,
moved his winter capital here from Pushkalavati,
30 kilometres (20 miles) to the north. His
summer capital was north of Kabul at Kapisa, and
the Kushans moved freely back and forth through
the Khyber Pass between the two cities, from
which they ruled their enormous and prosperous
empire for the next 400 years.
After the Kushan era, Peshawar declined into
an obscurity not broken until the 16th century,
following the Mughal emperor Babar's decision to
rebuild the fort here in 1530. Sher Shah Suri,
has successor (or, rather, the usurper of his
son's throne), turned Peshawar's renaissance
into a boom when he ran his Delhi-to-Kabul Shahi
Road through the Khyber Pass. The Mughals turned
Peshawar into a 'city of flowers' (one of the
meanings of its name) by planting trees and
laying our gardens.
In 1818, Ranjit Singh captured Peshawar for
his Sikh Empire. He burned a large part of the
city and felled the trees shading its many
gardens for firewood. the following 30 years of
Sikh rule saw the destruction of Peshawar's own
Shalimar Gardens and of Baba's magnificent fort,
not to mention the dwindling of the city's
population by almost half.
The British caused the Sikhs and occupied
Peshawar in 1849 but, as much as Sikh rule had
been hated, its British replacement aroused
little enthusiasm. More or less continuous
warfare between the British and the Pathans
necessitated a huge British garrison. When the
British built a paved road through the Khyber
Pass, they needed to build numerous forts and
pickets to guard it.
Extending from west to east in the heart of
the city is the romantic 'Street of
Story-tellers' - the Qissa Khawani Bazaar. In
olden days, this was the site of camping ground
for caravans and military adventures, where
professional story-tellers recited ballads and
tales of war and love to throngs of traders and
soldiers. Today the story-tellers are gone but
the atmosphere lingers on. Bearded tribesmen
bargain with city traders over endless cups of
green tea. Fruit stalls look small colorful
pyramids. People from everywhere throng the
crowded street. Afghans, Iraqis, Uzbeks, Tajiks,
Afridis, and Shinwaris move around with ease and
grace in their colorful native robes and run
shoulders with the Western tourists-lost in a
world so different, so enchanting.
Bazaar
Bater-bazan
'The Street of Partridge Lovers' lies on the
left hand corner of Qissa Khawani Bazaar. It
derives its name from the bird-market which
stood here till a few decades ago and has now
been replaced by stores and shops selling
exquisitely engraved brass and copper ware.
However, a single bride shop still remains as a
long reminder of the not too distant past.
Built on a raised platform from the ground
level, the Bala Hisar Fort stands at the
north-western edge of the city. The original
structure was raised in 1519 AD during the reign
of the Mughal Emperor Babar. It was
reconstructed in its present form by Sikhs who
ruled over Peshawar valley between 1791 and 1849
AD.
Back To Top
Jamrud
Fort
Same 16 kms from Peshawar, on the Khyber
road, an old battle-ship attracts the eye: this
is Jamrud Fort. Looking ruggedly majestic with
its jumble of towers and loop-holed walls, the
fort contains the grave of its builder, the
famous Sikh General Hari Singh Nalwa, who died
here in action against the forces of the Amir of
Kabul in 1837 AD.
Excursion
from Peshawar
The gigantic multi-purpose Warsak Dam is
situated 30 kms north-west of Peshawar in the
heart of tribal territory. It has a total
generating capacity of 240,000 kms and will
eventually serve to irrigate 110,000 acres of
land.
Back To Top
The
Museum
Situated on the Grand Trunk Road in the
Cantonment area, the museum houses a rich
treasure of art, sculpture and historical
relics, particularly of the Gandhara period (300
BC - 300 AD). The pieces on show at the museum
include Graeco-Buddhist stone and stucco
sculpture, gold, silver and copper coins,
antique pottery, armor, old manuscripts, Buddha
images, terra-coat plaques, antiques of ivory,
shell and metal and a replica of the famous
casket which contained the relics of Lord
Buddha.
Takht-e-Bhai
Situated atop a 160 meter high hill are the
remains of a famous Buddhist monastery at
Takht-e-Bhai, about 80 kms from Peshawar. This
site has produced fragmentary sculptures in
stone and stucco that indicate the highly
developed sculptural sense of their creators.
This site dates back from 2nd-3rd century AD.
Charsadda
Potentially one of the most important ancient
sites of Asia is represented by a group if
imposing mounds at Charsadda, 30 kms north-east
of Peshawar. The site has long been identified
with Pushkalavati, the pre-Kushan capital of
Gandhara. This city was captured in 324 BC after
a siege of 30 days, by the troops of Alexander
the Great and its formal surrender was received
by Alexander himself. It has been established
beyond doubt that this city was the metropolitan
centre of Asiatic trade and meeting place of
oriental and occidental cultures even as long
ago as 500-1,000 BC.
Mahabat
Khan's Mosque
This mosque was built in 1630 AD by Mahabat
Khan, the Governor of Peshawar, during the reign
of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan (1628-1658 AD).
It is a fine massive structure with lofty
minarets. Situated in the Andar Shahar Bazaar,
it is the finest mosque in the city.
 The
historic Khyber Pass being at a distance of 16
kms west of Peshawar and extends up to the
Pak-Afghanistan border at Torkkam, 55 kms away.
Starting from the foot-hills of the Slueman
Range it gradually rises to an elevation of
1,066 meters above sea level.
Khyber Pass has been a silent witness to
countless events in the history of mankind. As
one drives though the Pas at a leisurely pace,
imagination unfolds pages of history, the Aryans
descending upon the fertile northern plains in
1,500 BC subjugating the indigenous Dravidian
population and settling down to open a glorious
chapter in the history of civilization, the
Persian hordes under Darius (6th century BC)
crossing into the Punjab to annex yet another
province to the Achaemenian Empire; the armies
of Alexander the Great (326 BC) marching through
the rugged Pass to fulfill the wishes of a
young, ambitious conqueror; the terror of
Ghanghis Khan unwrapping the majestic hills and
turning back towards the trophies of ancient
Persia; the white Huns bringing fire and
destruction in their wake; the Scythians and the
Parthians, the Mughals and the Afghans,
conquerors all, crossing over to leave their
impact and add more chapters to the diverse
history of this sub-continent.
See Also:
Pakistan Passes
Back To Top
The
Khyber Train
For trail enthusiasts, the Khyber Railway
from Peshawar to Landi Kotal is a three-star
attraction. The British built it in the 1920s at
the then enormous cost of more than two million
pounds. It passes through 34 tunnels totaling
five kms (three miles) and over 92 bridges and
culverts. The two or three coaches are pulled
and pushed by two SG 060 oil-fired engines. At
one point, the track climbs 130 meters in little
more than a kilometer (425 feet in 0.7 miles) by
means of the heart-stopping Changai Spur. This
is a W-shaped section of track with two
cliff-hanging reversing stations, at which the
train wheezes desperately before shuddering to a
stop and backing away from the brink.
The Khyber train currently runs only by
appointment. Groups of 20 to 45 passengers can
book one bogey for an all day outing to Landi
Kotal and back, a ride lasting ten to eleven
hours, for US $ 1,000. But you can easily see
the train at rest at Peshawar Station.
Darra is the gun factory of the Tribal Areas,
located 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of
Peshawar on the road to Kohat, a drive of about
40 minutes. To visit the gun factories,
foreigners need a permit from the Home Secretary
of NWFP whose office is in the civil Secretariat
on Police Road, but you can drive by bus or car
through Darra without a permit provided you do
not stop. The permit is free and issued while
you wait, but you should get it the day before
you plan your factory visit.
The Darra arms 'factory' fired up in 1897. In
return for turning a blind eye to this illegal
Pathan enterprise, the British were guaranteed
safe passage along the main roads. In any case,
the British believed it better that the Pathans
have inferior weapons of their own making than
stolen British-made guns.
Darra's main street is lined on either side
with small forges at which guns are made by
hand. the tool are astonishingly primitive, yet
the forges turn out accurate reproduction of
every conceivable sort of weapon, from pen
pistols and hand-grenades to automatic rifles
and anti-aircraft guns. The copies are so
painstakingly reproduced that even the serial
number of the original is carried over. Much of
the craftsmanship is very fine, but the
reinforcing rods diverted from the building
trade. The main street constantly erupts with
the roar of gunfire, as tribesmen step out to
test prospective purchases.
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