The Kohat Pass cuts through the Kohat Range southwest of the city, a narrow gorge of dry limestone ridges that was for centuries the main route between the Peshawar valley and the tribal districts of Waziristan and the lands beyond. The British fought repeatedly to control it in the 19th century, and the pass changed hands more than once during the various campaigns along the Northwest Frontier. The landscape of pale rock, scrub, and narrow defile gives a vivid sense of why — this is exactly the kind of terrain where a small defending force can hold up an army.
The old road through the pass is now paved, and the Kohat Tunnel (opened 2003) has siphoned most traffic away from the traditional route, leaving the pass road quieter than it was. Driving through — or in better times, walking sections of it — is one of the more viscerally historical experiences the Kohat area offers. The dry limestone walls of the gorge rise steeply on both sides, the track is narrow, and it is not difficult to understand why this particular piece of geography dominated military thinking across several generations of British officers and Pashtun fighters alike.