Peshawar Old City

Peshawar has been a city for over two thousand years, sitting where the routes from Central Asia come down through the Khyber hills onto the plains, and the old city inside its former walls still works as a bazaar city. Qissa Khwani, the storytellers' bazaar, was where caravan traders swapped news over green tea, and it remains a street of tea houses, dried fruit sellers and copper workers. The Mahabat Khan Mosque of the 1670s stands in the middle of the goldsmiths' quarter, its courtyard a sudden pool of calm above the noise. The Sethi houses, built by a merchant family in the nineteenth century, are the surprise: Bukhara-influenced mansions with carved wooden facades, coloured glass and cool underground summer rooms, one of which is open as a museum. The Peshawar Museum holds the world's finest Gandharan sculpture collection, including the Fasting Buddha.

What you actually see

• Qissa Khwani bazaar - tea houses, dried fruit and copper work in the storytellers' street.
• Mahabat Khan Mosque - a 1670s Mughal mosque in the goldsmiths' quarter.
• Sethi House - a carved merchant mansion with underground summer rooms.
• Peshawar Museum - the great Gandharan sculpture collection.

When to go

October to March; summer in Peshawar is severe, regularly over forty degrees, and the bazaars are exhausting in that heat. Mornings are the best time for the old city. Fridays alter opening hours across the bazaars and museums.

Honest expectations

Foreign visitors attract attention and may be asked to register or take a police escort in some circumstances; arrangements vary and are best checked locally before arriving. The old city is dense, loud and congested, with limited signage in English. Photography of people requires asking. Women travellers should dress conservatively and expect scrutiny.

Nearby

Takht-i-Bahi is an hour and a half east; Islamabad is two hours by motorway.