Peshawar: two and a half thousand years at the mouth of the Khyber
One of the oldest continuously lived-in cities in South Asia, and once home to a stupa that may have been the tallest building on earth.
Read itKhyber Pakhtunkhwa
Abbottabad: the green hills on the way north
A hill town at 1,256 metres in the Hazara valley, with more rain than anywhere else on this list and the road to Kaghan running through it.
Abbottabad: the green hills on the way north
Abbottabad is about 120 kilometres north of Islamabad and is the town most people pass through on their way to the Kaghan valley or up the Karakoram Highway. It is green, mild and unhurried.
It gets over 1,500 mm of rain a year, which is why the Hazara hills around it look nothing like the rest of northern Pakistan.
A short history
The town was founded in 1853 by Major James Abbott, the first deputy commissioner of Hazara, and it kept his name after 1947 — one of the few British-era names in the country that did.
It grew as a cantonment and remains a military town: the Pakistan Military Academy is at Kakul just outside it.
Hindko is the main language, spoken by about three quarters of the population, with Pashto next. The city functions as the medical and educational centre for the whole Hazara division.
Places worth your time
- Ilyasi Masjid
- Built around 1927-32 over a natural spring, in Nawansher on the edge of town, and the town's best-known building.
- Shimla Hill
- A short climb with a view back over the valley.
- Thandiani
- About 30 kilometres east and 2,800 metres up — pine forest, cool air and far fewer people than Murree.
- The Kaghan road
- Abbottabad is the gateway. Naran, Saif-ul-Malook and the Babusar Pass are all north of here.
Before you go
March to October; the monsoon in July and August is heavy but the hills are at their best just after it. Two and a half hours from Islamabad.
Also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Nearby
Mardan: the monastery on the hill at Takht-i-Bahi
The best-preserved Buddhist monastic complex in all of what was Gandhara, standing on a ridge above the plain for two thousand years.
Read itChitral: under Tirich Mir, at the end of the road
A former princely state behind the Lowari Pass, with its own language, a fort with a famous siege, and the Kalash valleys an hour away.
Read itTravel guides
Before you go
Timeless beauty · Serene waters · Living culture
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