After observing the responses that I have recieved from you people at mouthshut about my first review about Islamabad, the capital city of pakistan, now comes my second review of another beautiful city of Pakistan whose name is Peshawar. This review is also being written with the perspective of tourists and travelling. So, lets get started.......
PESHAWAR
About 172 km (107 miles) west of Rawalpindi/Islamabad by road and about half on hour by air lies the major town of Pakistan, the ancient and legendary Peshawar, city of the proud Pathans.
Peshawar, capital of the North-West Frontier Province, NWFP. Peshawar has its importance due to the military and communications center and the major depot for trade with Afghanistan.
Peshawar derives its name from a Sanskrit word ’’Pushpapura’’, meaning the city of flowers.
The great Babur marched through historic Khyber Pass, situated here, to conquer South Asia in 1526 and set up the Moghal Empire in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent.
This city has played a vital role in the past for the armies marching down. It is also known for its pathway of commerce and migration and invasion, by Aryans, Scythians, Persians, Greeks, Bactrians, Kushans, Huns, Turks, Mongols and Moghals.
By the mid-fifties Peshawar was enclosed within a city wall and sixteen gates. Of the sixteen gates the most famous was the Kabuli Gate but only the name remains now. It leads out of the Khyber and on to Kabul.
The construction of new Peshawar took start across the railway line and it has never stopped since.
The ’Saddar’ (Cantonment) is a spacious, neat and clean township with avenues of tall trees, wide roads, large houses with large lawns and a pervading scent of rare shrubs and flowers that is Peshawar’s own.
Khalid Bin Walid (Company) Bagh, is the heart of the city, is an old Moghal Garden. Its popular due to its huge ancient trees and gorgeous big roses. Two other splendid old gardens are the Shahi Bagh in the north-east and the Wazir Bagh in the south-east, all of which give the character of the garden city to Peshawar. All these gardens are worth watching.
The splendid modern State Bank building, Governor’s House, hotels, old missionary Edwards College, a richly stocked Museum, a fine shopping area and Tourist Information Centre are all situated right in the Saddar.
The Peshawar of the past is the old city, the Peshawar of the British period (1849-1947) is the Cantonment but the Peshawar of independent Pakistan is the vast extension of the city west and east.
Westward, on the road to the Khyber, where in the days gone by, no one was assafe from tribal raids, today stretches a long line of educational and research institutions, such as the Academy of Rural Development. the Teachers’ Training College, the North Regional Laboratories of the Council of scientific and Industrial Research, and many others.
But the pride of Peshawar today is its University, a vast sprawling garden town of red brick buildings and velvet lawns, which comprises a dozen departments and colleges of Law, Medicine, Engineering and Forestry. Special mention must be made of the Islamia College, which was the poineer national institution that lighted the torch of enlightment in this region, 70 years ago.
The road stretching out east towards Islamabad is lined for miles upon miles with factories producing a variety of goods and also orchards producing some of the world’s finest plums, pears and peaches. Rice, sugar-cane and tobacco are the rich cash-crops of the well-watered Peshawar valley through which flows the Kabul River and at the end of which the mighty Indus forms the district boundary for 49km, the two joining near the historic Attock Fort.