Theme Week Pakistan – Peshawar

23 June 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  12 minutes

Bala Hissar Fort © NoahOmarY/cc-by-sa-4.0

Bala Hissar Fort © NoahOmarY/cc-by-sa-4.0

Peshawar is the capital of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its largest city. It is the sixth-largest in Pakistan. Peshawar is also the largest Pashtun-majority city in Pakistan and is bilingual in Pashto and Hindko. Situated in the broad Valley of Peshawar near the eastern end of the historic Khyber Pass, close to the border with Afghanistan, Peshawar’s recorded history dates back to at least 539 BCE, making it the oldest city in Pakistan and one of the oldest cities in South Asia. As the center of the ancient Gandhara region, Peshawar served as the capital of the Kushan Empire; and was home to the Kanishka stupa. Peshawar was then sacked by the White Huns, before the arrival of Muslim empires. The city was an important trading centre during the Mughal era before serving as the winter capital of the Afghan Durrani Empire from 1757 until the city was captured by the Sikh Empire in 1818, who were then followed by the British in 1849.   read more…

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