KPK

Drill into the culture, dress, food, games and history of each city in KPK.

Peshawar

The city of storytellers — Silk Road bazaars at the mouth of the Khyber.

The eras of Pakistan's history that most shaped KPK, from past to present.

1. 500 BCE – 500 CE
   Gandhara & the Buddhist era

   Alexander the Great crossed into what is now Pakistan in 326 BCE. The Mauryan and later Kushan empires made Taxila (Punjab) and Peshawar (KPK) the intellectual centres of Buddhist Gandhara — home to some of the earliest Buddha statues ever carved.

2. 1526–1707
   Mughal Empire

   Under the Mughals, Lahore served as the imperial capital during Akbar's reign (1584–1598) and remained a premier city. The Badshahi Mosque (1673), Lahore Fort, Shalimar Gardens (1642), Rohtas Fort, Mahabat Khan Mosque, and Wazir Khan Mosque were all built in this period — most are UNESCO World Heritage sites today.

3. 1799–1849
   Sikh Empire

   Ranjit Singh unified the Sikh misls and built an empire stretching from the Khyber Pass to Kashmir. He ruled from Lahore Fort until his death in 1839; the empire fell to the British in the Second Anglo-Sikh War (1849).

4. 1849–1947
   British Raj

   The British built the Karachi–Lahore–Peshawar rail network, the Sukkur Barrage (1932) and the world's largest contiguous canal system in Punjab. The North-West Frontier Province and the tribal agencies became the front line of the Great Game with Russia, and the Khyber Pass was fortified against Afghanistan.

Questions about KPK

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