☰Day Trips

Peshawar is the natural base for several of the most historically significant sites in the region. The Khyber Pass — 20 km from the city — requires a permit and an armed escort arranged through the Khyber Rifles; the trip into the pass is a genuine frontier experience. Taxila, an hour's drive east, is one of the great archaeological sites of the ancient world: a UNESCO World Heritage site preserving the ruins of a city that was in turn Achaemenid, Greek, and Buddhist. Darra Adam Khel, the famous arms bazaar where the Pashtun frontier gunsmiths copy any weapon on request, is 40 km south — visit with a local guide. Mardan, northeast of Peshawar, gives access to more Gandharan Buddhist ruins at the Takht-i-Bahi monastery.