Things to do in North West Frontier Province
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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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Buddhist Monastery
This Buddhist Monastery sat on a commanding rocky hill 15km northwest of Mardan is by far NWFP's stand-out Gandharan site, and compares more than favourably with Taxila near Islamabad. It thrived between the 1st and 7th centuries AD before being abandoned, finally giving up its secrets to British archaeologists from 1907-13, who also reconstructed parts of the site.
You enter through a courtyard that at one time held at least 35 stupas and 30 little chapels with Buddha statues. A few statues have been left in situ, the rest are in the Peshawar Museum. The walls would have been plastered, but now reveal the amazing dry stone walling techniques that constructed the complex.…
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Chitral Fort
Chitral Fort has a commanding position on the river. It remains the seat of the mehtar's descendents so you can't enter it without an invitation, although, if you knock on the main gate one of the chowkidars may let you stick your head around the door to see the old cannons in the courtyard. The entrance on the southeast end is to the residential quarters, while the one facing Shahi Bazaar was for the royal guard.
The most interesting side faces the river and is best viewed from the far end of Naya Bazaar or from across the river. The ornate building up the road southwest towards the police station was the royal courthouse. The walls were once plastered, but its loss reve…
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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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Butkara No 1
Butkara No 1 is also called Butkara, or the local name of Gulkada (gool-ka-da). This site has yielded one of Swat's richest harvests of artefacts, all now in museums. The enormous central stupa was probably begun by Ashoka in the 3rd century BC; by the 10th century it had been rebuilt five times, each new version enclosing the last.
Surrounding it were over 200 little stupas built by wealthy pilgrims. To get here, find the first road just north of the Swat Museum, off Saidu Sharif Rd, and walk east along it for 900m. Then walk 250m north on a footpath across fields to a boundary fence in a grove of trees.
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Chitral Polo Ground
At the south end of town is the Chitral polo ground. One of Pakistan's best, practice matches are held here every few days from mid-March to early November, and real matches on weekends, always in the afternoon. On one side is a covered VIP stand, where tourists may sometimes sit (if there are no dignitaries in town). The best players are often drawn from the Chitral Scouts and the police. The best times for polo are from late May onwards, and in the run up to the Shandur and Chitral festivals.
The PTDC office or CAMAT will be able to advise on upcoming matches.
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Khyber Bazaar
From the Cantonment you approach the Old City along Railway Rd and through Khyber Bazaar, consisting mostly of cheap hotels, kebab stands and carpet merchants (stand around for a few minutes and one will sidle up to you). The city wall and its 16 gates were knocked down in the 1950s but many gates remain in name.
The streets leading south and east from the Rose Hotel have several good (unsigned) Afghan cafés serving rice and kebabs, plus piping-hot Central Asian-style naan, although in the Old City you're never too far from good, filling street food.
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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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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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Swat Museum
Partly funded by the Japanese, the excellent Swat Museum in Saidu Sharif should be on anyone's itinerary if they have an interest in Buddhist Swat. Gandharan-style statuettes and friezes depict the lives of the Buddha along with seals, tiny reliquaries and other treasures, mostly from Butkara No 1 and Udegram. In other rooms are pre-Buddhist artefacts, and an ethnographic gallery with traditional carved Swati furniture, jewellery and some wonderful embroideries.
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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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Ali Masjid
Near the narrowest point of the pass, about 15km from Jamrud, is Ali Masjid. Above the mosque, Ali Masjid Fort commands a view over this strategic sector of the pass. A small cemetery here contains the graves of British soldiers who fell in the second Afghan War. Before the pass was widened to 3m, it's said to have been too narrow for two fully-laden camels to pass each other. The valley walls bear insignias of regiments that have served here.
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Jambil Valley Archaeological Sites
At Panr (pronounced 'pahn') on the other (east) side of Jambil Khwar are a stupa and monastery from the 1st to 5th centuries AD. You'll find a path and bridge about 1.5km beyond Butkara No 3, or you can head 3km out along Haji Baba Rd from Mingora Bazaar. Further out at Loebanr, on the west side, are an Aryan graveyard from the 2nd to 1st millennia BC and a 3rd to 4th century AD stupa.
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Lala's Grill
Part of Green's Hotel, this is a welcome place to eat if you're craving clean cutlery and tablecloths. The menu sticks to standards along the Pakistani-Chinese-Continental axis, and the waiters agreeably tell you what the chef has just been cooking if you want to eat quickly or what needs to be prepared from scratch (usually the Continental dishes) if you're in no rush.
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Butkara No 3
Further along the Jambil Valley is Butkara No 3, a partly reconstructed courtyard of enclosed stupas. To get here, continue 500m past the turn-off to Butkara No 1 until you reach a culvert. Then climb five minutes up a gully to the right. It can be difficult to find, but there's a village on the way and someone from there can probably show you.
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Chitral Museum Of Archaeology & Ethnology
The small new Chitral Museum Of Archaeology & Ethnology is poorly signed but located next to the polo ground. It has a few local ethnographic exhibits, but is a little disappointing and keeps irregular hours (you may have to find someone to open it for you). It compares poorly with the excellent Kalasha museum (Kal'as'a Dur) in Bumboret.
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Pashtun Eateries
For quick eats, there are dozens of Pashtun eateries along GT Rd, particularly near the bus station and around Nishat Chowk. Fill up on chicken, kebabs, curries and dhal for a few rupees, washed down with juice from a nearby drinks stand. Seasonal fruit vendors are everywhere, especially trying to out-shout one another at Green Chowk.
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Chakdara Museum
Chakdara Museum is at the village's main intersection. Exhibits include well-preserved Buddhist statuary, carved columns and lintels from an old Swat mosque, and an ethnographic section with embroidery and lots of jewellery. Sadly, the captions are rather dismal and it is a poor relation to the excellent Swat Museum in Saidu Sharif.
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Chitrali Clothing Shops
There are plenty of shops strung along the bazaar selling Chitrali clothing, which make good souvenirs. A local speciality is patti, a fine woollen cloth that's made up into chogha robes, embroidered waistcoats or the classic pancake-shaped pakol cap (which should cost less than Rs 200).
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Afghan Restaurants
In various chaikhanas (teahouses) and Afghan restaurants around PIA Chowk, Ataliq Bridge and Naya Bazaar, you can sit cross-legged and eat qabli pilau (rice with meat and raisins), mutton curry or dhal for under Rs60 a head. Other Afghan restaurants can be found around Ataliq Bridge and Naya Bazaar.
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Shahi Masjid
Built by the ul-Mulks near the end of the 19th century. Its pinkish walls and white onion dome make it one of north Pakistan's most distinctive mosques, particularly as its minarets frame Tirich Mir in the far distance. It's usually fine to visit, but ask permission before entering and avoid Friday prayers.
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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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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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