Valley of Peshawar

The Valley of Peshawar (Pashto: د لوی پېښور وادي; Urdu: وادئ پشاور), or Peshawar Basin, historically known as the Gandhara Valley, is a broad area situated in the central part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The valley is 7,176 km² (2,771 sq mi) in area, and is traversed by the Kabul River. It has a mean elevation of 345 metres (1,132 ft).^[1] The valley takes its name from the city of Peshawar, which is situated at the western part of the valley close to Warsak Dam. To the west of the valley lies the Khyber Pass. The five most populous cities in the valley are Peshawar, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, and Nowshera.

Peshawar valley seen from Ranigat.

Districts located in the valley

These districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are completely located in the Valley of Peshawar:

• Charsadda District (population: 1,616,198)^[2]
• Mardan District (population: 2,373,061)
• Peshawar District (population: 4,269,079)

In addition, most of Nowshera District, most of Swabi District, and smaller portions of Khyber (including Jamrud), Mohmand, Malakand, and Frontier Region Peshawar are also located in the Valley of Peshawar.

Historic references

In 630 CE, Xuanzang visited the Valley of Peshawar, and mentioned two stupas built by Ashoka, one of them around (20 li) 6.4 km northeast of (Pa-lu-sha) Sahri Bahlol, which he said was located on "Mount Tan-to-lo-ka," Takht-i-Bāhi hill.^[3][4]

References

1. Samad, Rafi U. (2011). The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys. Algora Publishing. ISBN 9780875868585. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
2. "DISTRICT AND TEHSIL LEVEL POPULATION SUMMARY WITH REGION BREAKUP: KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA" (PDF). Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. 2018-01-03. Retrieved 2018-04-23.
3. Beal, Samuel, (ed. & trans.), (1884). Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Wester World, Volume 1, Author: Huen Tsang, p. 112: "Outside the eastern gate of the town of Po-lu-sha is a sangharama with about fifty priests, who all study the Great Vehicle. Here is a stupa built by Asoka-raja [...] To the north-east of Po-lu-sha city about 20 li or so we come to Mount Dantaloka. Above a ridge of that mountain is a stupa built by Asoka-raja."
4. Errington, Elizabeth, (1993). "In search of Pa-lu-sha, a city of the central Gandhara plain", in: Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, Volume 7, p. 63: "[R]egarding the Tan-to-lo-ka mountain visited by Xuanzang 'above twenty li' (4 miles/6.4 km) to the northeast of Pa-lu-sha [...], for if the latter is identified as Sahri Bahlol, it seems that the former must be equated with the Takht-i-Bāhi hill."