Everything You Need To Know Before Visiting Peshawar Museum
By: Zeeshan Kahloon
Tags: Pakistan, Peshawar Museums, Museums, Peshawar, Historical Places

Everything You Need To Know Before Visiting Peshawar Museum

The Peshawar Museum is one of South East Asia’s most famous museums, particularly for its Gandhara period (2nd century BCE to 6th century ACE) Buddhist sculptures. Founded in 1907, Peshawar Museum. The museum building consists of red bricks consisting of a spacious hall, two on the ground and two on the upper floor for side galleries. The main hall and three galleries are reserved for the exhibition of sculptures, terracotta figurines, lithic inscriptions, toilets, trays, household objects, etc. We can see the colossal standing Buddha and a large number of Buddha heads in different sizes are on display here, both in stone and stucco.

Peshawar Museum: A Historical Architecture

Tour the Peshawar Museum building in the 19th century to view Gandhara Empire’s ancient Buddhist artwork in a modern setting. The museum’s syncretic structure will leave you shocked as it incorporates Islamic, Hindu and British Mughal models. Archeological discoveries can be found in the building’s laboratory room. The display rooms of the Peshawar Museum offer a wide range of collections of paintings, inscriptions, sculptures, domestic objects, manuscripts, jewelry and others. Check out the on-site cafe after completing the tour to grab some snacks.

History

The present main hall was built in 1906–07 in the memory of Queen Victoria at the expense of Rs. 60000, of which Rs. 45000 was donated by Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa’s public and Rs.15000 by the Director General of Archeology, India.

The museum was built in November 1907 after completion of the building to house the Gandharan sculptures excavated from the main Gandharan sites of Shah-Ji-Ki-Dheri Peshawar, Sahri Bahlol, Takht-i-Bahi in the Mardan District and later from Jamal Garhi and other British scholars excavated Gandharan sites. The two-story building, a mixture of British and Mughal architecture, initially consisted of a main hall and two side aisles on the ground and first level, surmounted on all corners by four graceful cupolas and miniature pinnacles.

Two halls were added in similar fashion on the east and west side of the building in 1969–70 (one on each side). The second floor was added to these side halls in 1974–75.

Prominent Features:

The new Islamic Museum, built behind the main building, is scheduled to be completed in 2005, while the work on remodeling the old museum building will begin soon, taking our show and exhibition into line with the developed world The inscribed Kharosti casket held three fragments of Buddha’s bone offered to the Buddhist S by the British Government. In this museum, this famous casket is on display too.

There are some gems, pottery, shells of ivory, and objects of metal. It is also possible to see electrotypes of the early northwest frontier coins and lithic inscriptions in Kharoshti, sardar garhi.

How to Reach Peshawar Museum

Buses to stop: Khyber Bazaar Stop

Trains to stop: Peshawar Railway Station

Timing: 24-hrs

Peshawar Museum Location

Saddar Road, opposite Governor House Peshawar & Civil Secretariat, Finance Department, Civil Secretariat, Peshawar.

Speaking of location of Peshawar museum, there are multiple housing societies in the vicinity, one of which is Bahria Town Peshawar. On Charsadda Road, near Northern Bypass andM2-Expressway, Bahria Town Peshawar has acquired a large swathe of land. Due to easy access from all areas of Peshawar and across, the proposed position on Charsadda road has enormous value.

Bahria Town is one of Pakistan’s most popular housing schemes and has been running for 23 years in a row. Due to the rising population and demand for houses in Peshawar, Bahria Town Peshawar has the potential to become the second largest housing scheme after Bahria Town Karachi.