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“So it was that in early 327 B.C. one-half of Alexander’s army marched through the Khyber Pass . . . at the narrow confine by Ali Masjid, where the Khyber closes to just feet in width, the army would have squeezed through, two or three abreast, looking up warily at the steep heights immediately above them; unknown creatures might inhabit these mountains, for assuredly Indian was full of wonders.”
The Khyber Pass - the name alone is filled with a palpable sense of danger. This steep gorge separating Afghanistan from Pakistan and the northern states of Indian, the pass extends 30 miles through the White Mountains from Afghanistan to the plains of Peshawar in the east. This new book, The Khyber Pass: A History of Empire & Invasion, by Paddy Docherty (who traveled extensively through the pass in 2003) combines the close observations of the sympathetic traveler with the analysis of the engaged historian.
Using historic documents, Docherty traces the history of the pass from the campaigns of the Persian emperors Cyrus and Darius to Alexander the Great, to the days of the British Raj, and modern Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Highly recommended.
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