Photo: Muhammad Zahir · CC BY-SA 3.0Field guides / Khyber Pakhtunkhwa / Charsadda / Bala Hisar Mound (Pushkalavati), Charsadda
Field guide · Heritage
Charsadda
Charsadda District · Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Bala Hisar Mound (Pushkalavati), Charsadda
The great mound of Pushkalavati, the 'Lotus City' and once the capital of ancient Gandhara, on the edge of Charsadda.
Bala Hisar is the high mound of Pushkalavati, the 'Lotus City', once the capital of Gandhara, on the outskirts of Charsadda near where the Swat River meets the Kabul. People were living here by the second millennium BCE. In 327 BCE the city held out against Alexander the Great for about a month, by the Greek historian Arrian's account, before it surrendered. Bactrian Greeks, Scythians, Parthians and Kushans followed, until the Kushan emperor Kanishka moved his capital to Peshawar, and the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang still knew the city in the 7th century. The 1958 excavation by Pakistan's Department of Archaeology found fifty-two layers of occupation, from the 6th century BCE to the 16th century CE. Across the little Shambor river lies Shaikhan Dheri, the Indo-Greek city that grew up beside it.
Why go
- ✦The mound of Pushkalavati, the 'Lotus City' and ancient capital of Gandhara
- ✦Fifty-two layers of occupation, from the 6th century BCE to the 16th century CE
- ✦The city that held out against Alexander the Great for a month in 327 BCE
Visiting today
Bala Hisar is protected under the Antiquities Act, 1975. It is an open mound rather than a museum: the reward is standing on three thousand years of a single city, with the Charsadda plain and its rivers spread around you.
Planning tip
Best Time to Visit, October to March, when the Charsadda plain is mild; from May to September it is very hot. The mound is an open archaeological site with no visitor facilities, so bring water and good shoes.
Getting there, On the outskirts of Charsadda, northeast of Peshawar; the mound rises above the plain beside the Shambor river.
What to Do
Nearby
Straight-line distance from Bala Hisar Mound (Pushkalavati), Charsadda, within 5 km.
