Peshawar is a ‘frontier’ town, the meeting place of South Asia and Central Asia. It is the Oldest Living City in this part of Asia – a place where ancient traditions jostle with those of today, and where the bazaar in the Old Walled City has changed little in the last hundred years.

Perched along an ancient caravan route, it earned the title “Crossroads of Asia,” where journeys from Turkestan, Persia, Arabia, Afghanistan, China, and India converged. Known as the “Melting Pot of Civilisations” and even the “Casablanca of the East,” Peshawar has long been a city of romance and intrigue, where centuries of trade, art, and tradition meet. This timeless allure, blending the rich legacies of empires and cultures, makes it a true gateway to Asia’s heart and spirit.

An important archaeological dig in the Old City at Gor Khatri has established that Peshawar is one of the earliest living cities in this part of Asia, inhabited continuously from the 4-6th century BC, when it was a province of the Persian Achaemenian Empire. From then onwards it was ruled in turn by the Mauryans, Greeks, Scythians, Kushans, Sasanians, White Huns, Hindu Shahis, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Suri Afghans, Mughals, Durrani Afghans, Sikhs, and the British, before becoming Pakistan in 1947.

In ancient times, a circular mud wall was erected around the Old City to protect it from invaders and marauders. A total of sixteen gates were also built namely: Kabuli, Bajauri, Aasamai, Kutcheri, Rampura, Hashtnagri, Yakatoot, Kohati, Sarasia, Sirki, Thandi-khoi, Barzaqan, Ganj, Ramdas, Dabgari and Lahori Gate. Some city gates were named after the destinations they faced – Kabul Gate leading toward Kabul, and Lahori Gate toward Lahore. These names echo Peshawar’s historical, cultural, and commercial ties, rooted in its position along an ancient caravan route.

“As if out of some Arabian Nights story and resembling Kashgar and Shahrisabz, the old trading town of Peshawar bears an unmistakable imprint of Central Asia“