The gun bazaar is the entire reason most outsiders have ever heard of Darra Adam Khel. Several hundred small workshops line the main road and the lanes behind it, turning out almost any firearm a customer can describe: AK-style rifles, Mauser pistols, Glock and Beretta copies, shotguns, pen guns, even rocket-launcher knock-offs. The work is done with lathes, files, and hand tools, much of it by teenagers learning the family trade.
Shopkeepers usually invite visitors in to inspect what is on the racks, and many will take you to a hillside firing range a short walk from the bazaar where you can buy a few cartridges and try a weapon. The noise of testing — single shots, the occasional long burst — is a continual background to the town.
This is not a tourist site in any normal sense and the legal status of what goes on is at best ambiguous. Foreign visitors require a tribal escort, and access has tightened considerably since the army's operations in the area after 2008. Check current advisories carefully before you try.