Peshawar Old City

Historic Walled City Of Peshawar, One Of The Oldest Continuously Inhabited Cities In South Asia, On The Road To The Khyber Pass · Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Peshawar's old city is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in South Asia, a frontier market town at the foot of the Khyber Pass where caravans from Central Asia met the plains of India for more than two thousand years. The old walled city is a maze of bazaars and lanes. Qissa Khwani, the Storytellers' Bazaar, was where travellers once traded tales over tea; now it sells everything, with green tea poured from brass kettles along the way. The Mahabat Khan Mosque, built in 1670 under the Mughals, has a painted interior and a white courtyard above the crush. Sethi House, a nineteenth-century merchant's house with carved wood and stained glass, is now a museum, and Gor Khuttree, on the old city's high point, is an excavation going down through Mughal, Sikh and Buddhist layers to some of the oldest traces of the city. The food is famous across Pakistan: chapli kebab, lamb karahi and Kabuli pulao. Peshawar has suffered terrible attacks, including a 2022 mosque bombing in the old city itself, and most foreign governments advise against travel, so check before going.

Walled City, Peshawar, from Qissa Khwani Bazaar to Gor Khuttree, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

A living neighbourhood with no ticket. Bazaars are busiest from late morning to evening and many shops close on Friday afternoons. Sethi House and Gor Khuttree keep daytime hours with small fees. Foreigners in Peshawar are commonly registered by police and may be given an escort; confirm the rules before going. Peshawar is about two hours from Islamabad on the motorway.

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