Day 5.
I was down at the hotel restaurant by 7:30am and then met up with Ghulam and Ashfaq for another day of exploring.
Today's plan was to drive the ~2 hours to the city of
Peshawar before returning to
Islamabad via the town of
Taxila.
Heading west on the
M1 motorway to
Peshawar. We had taken a 'B' road the previous day from Lahore to Islamabad and I was impressed with the modern six lane motorway linking Peshawar with the capital.
The drive went by fairly quickly and we arrived in the centre of the Old City just after 10am.
Chowk Yadgar (Urdu: “Memorial Square”) with a dome-shaped monument in memorial of the
Qissa Khwani Bazaar massacre in 1930 when an estimated 20 and up to 400 people were killed by British Indian Army soldiers that opened fire on demonstrators.
We then walked west along Jewelers Street. A minaret of
Mahabat Khan Mosque visible ahead.
The colourful ceiling at the mosque's entrance decorated with Mughal frescoes.
The mosque was completed in 1670 and named after the Mughal governor of Peshawar, Nawab Mahabat Khan bin Ali Mardan Khan.
In the mosque courtyard with an array of cooling fans and a centre pool for ablutions.
A man reading the Quran in the shade in a corner of the courtyard.
Inside the very elegant main prayer hall.
The mosque's interior was decorated with beautiful floral motifs.
Quranic calligraphy visible on one of the interior walls.
Quran Verse.
Elaborate geometric patterns on the arch ceilings.
Copies of the Quran in one of the alcoves.
We then continued our walk through Jewellers bazaar. Peshawar is only 57 kiometres from the border of Afghanistan and 286 kilometres from the capital of Kabul, the only other city I had seen women wearing the
burqa.
We then wandered down an alley to
Kapoor Haveli, the former home of the famous Kapoor Bollywood family.
As the Kapoors are Punjabi Hindus, they left Peshawar to Mumbai after the partition of India in 1947.
Just beneath the old crumbling building was a chai shop.
Little green tea pots bubbling away.
The gentlemen sitting on a little stool, preparing the fresh batches of
kahwah.
We then retreated to the back of the shop and sat down on the carpeted floor for our morning tea.
Kahwah is a traditional green tea preparation made by boiling green tea leaves with saffron strands, cinnamon bark and cardamom pods.
After our caffeine fix we went for a wander through the nearby
Qissa Khawani Bazaar.
The Bazaar has been referred to as the "
Piccadilly of South Asia".
Fresh strawberries.
Tubers, onions and tomatoes.
Visiting a workshop in the bazaar where elaborate bridal dresses were being handmade.
Each of the dresses takes many hours to hand embroider.
A closeup of the intricate and very detailed handiwork.
A shop selling traditional medicines.
