Fire Brigade in 1950's
Old Peshawar (1890)
Men walk in a crowded street of an ethnically diverse Peshawar in this photograph taken circa 1890.
Located at the crossroads of Central, South and West Asia, Peshawar emerged as a centre of knowledge and culture in around 2nd Century BC.
Peshawar was taken over by the British after the first Anglo-Sikh war in 1849.
At the time when this photograph was taken, Sir Mortimer Durand was mapping the mountains near Peshawar to demarcate the border between the British empire and Afghanistan.
Patras Bukhari wrote the following about old Peshawar in a letter to his sons:
“More and more, my wakeful and sleeping dreams are about Peshawar…. how will I ever be able to walk the dusty road outside Kohati Gate and make my way to blossoming orchards heavy with due, or smell the roasted meet in shops and eatinghouses full of strange travelers from the heart of Asia; or stand in the crisp cold wind from the snow peaked hills; or roam around the Sadar contacting far off England through second hand detective magazines; it the smell of candy, biscuits and toilet soap that made up a ‘European’ shop like Gai’s…”
Old Pashto Musical Program of Radio Pakistan Peshawar