Khyber Pass

Khyber Pass, mountain pass in western Asia, the most important pass connecting
Afghanistan and Pakistan, controlled by Pakistan. The Khyber Pass winds northwest
through the Safed Koh near Peshawar, Pakistan, for about 48 km (about 30 mi) to Kabul,
Afghanistan, varying in width from 5 to 137 m (15 to 450 ft). The pass is walled by
precipitous cliffs that vary in height from about 180 to 300 m (about 600 to 1000 ft). The
pass reaches its highest elevation (1,072 m/3,517 ft) at the border between Afghanistan
and Pakistan.

The Khyber Pass is threaded by a caravan track and by a good hard-surface road. The
railway (opened 1925) through the pass connects Jamrud with Landi Khana, near the
Afghan frontier; the line, with its 34 tunnels and 94 bridges and culverts, revolutionized
transportation in the area. The pass may be skirted by a road fork that enters the hills
about 9 miles north of Jamrud and emerges at Lowyah Dakkah.

Few passes have had such continuing strategic importance or so many historic
associations as the Khyber Pass. Through it have passed Persians, Greeks, Mughals,
Afghans, and the British, for whom it was the key point in control of the Afghan border.
In the 5th century BC Darius I the Great of Persia conquered the country around Kabul
and marched through the Khyber Pass to the Indus River. Two centuries later
Hephaestion and Perdiccas, generals of Alexander the Great, probably used the pass.
Buddhism flourished in and around the Khyber when it was part of Ashoka's kingdom
(3rd century BC); Buddhist remains include Kafir Kot (Citadel of the Kafirs), Shopla
stupa (also called the Khyber Top), and the stupa near Ali Masjid. The pass was used by
Mahmud of Ghazna, Babur, Nader Shah, and Ahmad Shah Durrani and his grandson
Shah Zaman in their invasions of India. Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of the Punjab,
extended his kingdom as far as Jamrud in the early 19th century.