Taxila

Through time

The story

Taxila, historically known as Takṣaśilā, is a city and a World Heritage Site in the Rawalpindi District of Punjab, Pakistan. Founded around c. 1000 BC, it is one of the oldest cities in South Asia, and has a population of over 136,900 as of 2023.

Situated on the eastern bank of the Indus River — the pivotal junction of the South Asia and Central Asia — it was possibly founded around 1000 BCE. Ancient Taxila, along with Puṣkalāvatī, was one of the capitals of the Gandhāra civilisation. The city has been suggested to be the capital of the Achaemenid province of Hinduš during c. 500 – c. 330 BCE. It is named in the writings of Pāṇini and its king, called Taxiles by the ancient Greeks, readily recognised the suzerainty of Alexander the Great in 326 BCE once he appeared on the scene after overthrowing the Achaemenids.

Mauryans took over the city in the following decades, and as per Buddhist texts, Ashoka was the governor at Taxila before becoming king. Some scholars consider the conventionally called University of ancient Taxila to be one of the earliest universities or education centres in South Asia.

In the following centuries, the Indo-Greeks, the Indo-Scythians, the Indo-Parthians and the Kushans successively made Taxila their capital and left architectural marks here. The invading Hunas devastated Taxila in the 5th century, and during his pilgrimage, the 7th-century Chinese monk Xuanzang described it as a city in decline, eventually fading into obscurity. In the mid-19th century, ruins of ancient Taxila were rediscovered by British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham and extensively excavated by Sir John Marshall.

In 1980, UNESCO designated Taxila as a World Heritage Site. Taxila is located within the Taxila Tehsil, on the Pothohar Plateau of northern Punjab, and lies approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of the Haripur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is one of Punjab's popular tourist spots, attracting up to one million tourists every year.

Adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.

What you will see

1. Sirkap
2. Dharmarajika Stupa
3. Jaulian Monastery

Before you go

• Check opening hours and ticket rules shortly before your visit — they change seasonally.
• Plan for the heat. Most ancient sites have little shade; go early or late.
• Respect the barriers. Fragile surfaces are protected for the next visitors.