Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sits on the old routes between Central Asia and the Indus plains, and it shows. Around the Peshawar and Mardan plains, the ruins of Gandhara, the Buddhist kingdom that blended Indian and Greek ideas of sculpture, are spread over hillsides and village fields. Takht-i-Bahi is the best preserved of them. In Swat, rock-cut Buddhas look down from the valley walls, and in Peshawar the Qissa Khwani Bazaar still works as it did when caravans came through.

North of Swat the land rises into the Hindu Kush. Chitral is a long valley below Tirich Mir, the highest peak in the range, and three small side valleys, Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir, are home to the Kalash, a people with their own religion, festivals and language. To the east, Naran and the Kaghan valley give an easier mountain trip, with lakes and a high road to Babusar Pass.

The hills are at their best from April to October. Peshawar and the Gandhara sites are too hot in summer, and are better from October to March. The Kalash spring festival, Chilam Joshi, falls in mid-May and the winter festival, Chaumos, in December. Roads in the north are sometimes closed by landslides after heavy rain, so we keep a day or two of slack in any itinerary here.

Islamabad is the usual starting point. The motorway reaches Peshawar in about two hours, and Swat is a four to five hour drive. Chitral is reached through the Lowari Tunnel, which has made the road far more reliable in winter.