Sights in Peshawar
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Smugglers' Bazaar
On the fringes of Peshawar as you head towards the Khyber Pass is the Smugglers' Bazaar (Karkhanai Bazaar). It thrives openly on the sale of goods imported through Pakistan for Afghanistan, then smuggled back through the Tribal Areas to avoid paying duty. Everything is available here from cut-price electronics to clothes and stationery. It's an enormous trade that costs Pakistan millions of dollars annually in lost revenue - enough money to generate the bribes that allow the market to flourish.
Foreigners are banned from entering the far end of the bazaar where guns and drugs are openly on sale - a barrier prevents accidental entry.
The Smugglers' Bazaar and Darra Adam K…
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A
Peshawar Museum
Housed in a glorious Victorian Mughal-Gothic hall across the tracks from the Old City, the Peshawar Museum has the largest collection of Gandharan art in the world, ranging from statues and friezes depicting the Buddha's life to winged cupids and Herculean heroes. It's a dizzying stylebook of Graeco-Bactrian art, if often let down by poor labelling (also check out the Graeco-Bactrian coinage hidden upstairs).
There's a small Islamic collection with some delightful illustrated books, and an ethnographic section with wooden effigies taken from a Kalasha cemetery, including an ancestor figure riding a two-headed horse.
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B
Mahabat Khan Mosque
West of Chowk Yadgar is Mahabat Khan Mosque, the city's finest mosque, built in 1630 by the governor of Peshawar under Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, and renovated in 1898. You can enter the mosque and look around at the lavish tiled interior and also get a good view of the plaza and minarets from an ancient caravanserai to the east. Freelance guides that hover around Ander Shahar are good value for visiting the mosque and caravanserai, though they'll want you to visit their shop afterwards.
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Qissa Khawani
Kabuli Gate is where Khyber Bazaar becomes Qissa Khawani, the old 'Street of Storytellers'. Peshawar's most famous bazaar, there's little memory left of the traders and travellers that would gather here to swap tales; most of its teashops have given way to clothes and electrical shops. To the left round the corner, brass and copperware are for sale in what used to be the old bird market. Soon the aroma of tea and spice hints of a pocket of traders carrying on another ancient enterprise.
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C
Bala Hisar Fort
The imposing Bala Hisar Fort and its bleak ramparts still appear to monitor movement along the Grand Trunk Rd. Babur first built a fort here in 1526 after capturing Peshawar. It was a royal residence for the Afghan Durrani dynasty before being captured, trashed, and in 1834, rebuilt in mud by the Sikhs (replaced by brick by the British). It's now the headquarters of the Frontier Corps. Access inside is limited, but there's a small museum and great views over the city from the ramparts.
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Islamia College
The prestigious Islamia College, founded in 1913, is well worth a look for its grand Victorian façade and clocktower, which features on the country's Rs1000 note. It faces Jamrud Rd and anyone can enter the gates and stroll around the manicured gardens. The green surroundings and contemplative atmosphere make it a real oasis. Any bus heading west from Khyber Bazaar or the Cantonment will drop you there; a taxi from Saddar should cost around Rs80.
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Ziarat Rahman Baba
The tomb of Ziarat Rahman Baba in green surroundings on the southern outskirts of Peshawar is a shrine to the 17th century poet Rahman Baba, one of the masters of Pashto poetry. It's a quiet and contemplative place and a popular centre for Peshawar's Sufis, who welcome respectful visitors. On Thursday nights there is Sufi devotional singing and music after evening prayers and into the night, a low-key but intimate version of the Sufi music of Lahore.
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D
Cunningham Clocktower
East from Chowk Yadgar the road forks beneath the four-tiered Cunningham Clocktower, built at the turn of the 20th century for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Bearing right at the tower, the main road has many two- and three-storey old houses with carved balconies, once the homes of rich merchants.
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E
Ghor Khatri
A caravanserai in Mughal times and the governor's mansion under the Sikhs, it also contains a neglected Hindu temple. Archaeological excavations in its gardens show the many strata of Peshawar's history, reaching nearly 15m below ground level, to well before the Greeks and Kushans.
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F
All Saints Church
To the south of Pipal Mandi is All Saints Church, adapted from a former mosque in 1883 and still correctly oriented towards Mecca. A bird market is nearby.
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