The Kabul river — the same river that flows through the Afghan capital — runs north of central Nowshera and is crossed by an old British-built iron-truss railway bridge as well as the modern road bridge that carries the N-5 highway. Looking upstream from the road bridge, the river curves through wide gravel beds toward the foothills of the Khyber.
The river floods catastrophically every few decades — most recently in 2010, when much of low-lying Nowshera was destroyed. The high-water marks are still visible on buildings along the south bank.