:Khyber Pass

Following Asian Highway 1 (AH1), the summit of the pass at the town of Landi Kotal is {{convert|5|km|mi|0|abbr=off|spell=on}} inside Pakistan, descending {{convert|460|m|ft|abbr=on}} into the Valley of Peshawar at Jamrud, about {{convert|30|km|mi|abbr=on}} from the Afghan border by traversing part of the Spin Ghar mountains.{{Cite web|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-iranica-online/khyber-pass-COM_365323?lang=en|title=KHYBER PASS|first=Andreas|last=Wilde|date=27 September 2022|publisher=Brill|via=referenceworks.brillonline.com}}

File:The Khyber Pass with the fortress of Alimusjid - lithograph by James Rattray - 1848 (2).jpg in 1848]]

File:Khyber chiefs with captain tucker.jpg posing at Jamrud Fort at the mouth of the Khyber Pass in 1878]]

File:Elephant battery of heavy artillery along the Khyber Pass at Campbellpur LCCN2004707363.tif's elephant battery of heavy artillery along the Khyber Pass at Campbellpur, 1895]]

Historical invasions of the Indian subcontinent have been predominantly through the Khyber Pass, such as those of Cyrus, Darius I, Alexander, Genghis Khan, and later Mongols such as Duwa, Qutlugh Khwaja and Kebek. Prior to the Kushan era, the Khyber Pass was not a widely used trade route.{{cite book |last1=Tarn |first1=William Woodthorpe |title=The Greeks in Bactria and India |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108009416 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-HeJS3nE9cAC&q=purushapura+bactria|access-date=28 March 2017}}

The pass has been traversed by military expeditions launched by empires such as the Achaemenids and Sassanids, as well as by nomadic invaders from Central Asia, including the Saka, Yuezhi, and White Huns. Indian empires rarely extended their control beyond the pass, with the Maurya king Chandragupta being an exception.

The Khyber Pass has witnessed the spread of Greek influence into India and the expansion of Buddhism in the opposite direction. Despite military activities, trade continued to thrive there. The Khyber Pass became a critical part of the Silk Road, a major trade route from East Asia to Europe.{{cite book |title=Insight Guides Silk Road |date=2017 |publisher=Apa Publications (UK) Limited |isbn=9781786716996 |page=424 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X4mPDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT424 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Arnold |first1=Guy |title=World Strategic Highways |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135933739 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=scC2AgAAQBAJ&q=Khyber+Pass+silk+road&pg=PR12 }}

The Parthian Empire fought for control of passes such as this to profit from the trade in silk, jade, rhubarb, and other luxuries moving from China to Western Asia and Europe. Through the Khyber Pass, Gandhara (in present-day Pakistan) became a regional center of trade connecting Bagram in Afghanistan to Taxila in Pakistan, adding Indian luxury goods such as ivory, pepper, and textiles to the Silk Road commerce.{{rp|74}}

During the Islamic period, Muslim rulers, including Mahmud Ghaznavi, Muhammad of Ghor, Timur, Babur, and Nader Shah used the Khyber and nearby passes for their invasions of Indian subcontinent. The Mughals attempted to control the pass but faced resistance from local tribes. Ahmad Shah Durrani was the last major Islamic conqueror to cross the pass, though his successors' campaigns had limited lasting impact. Finally, Sikhs under Ranjit Singh captured the Khyber Pass in 1834.{{cite book|title=The Khyber Pass: A History of Empire and Invasion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oSbovvxLlWgC&pg=PA186|year=2008|publisher=Union Square Press|isbn=978-1-4027-5696-2}}

File:Khyber Pass Railway by PanjabDigitalLibrary.jpg.]]

In the 19th century, the British East India Company )EIC) aimed to secure the Khyber Pass from Russia as part of the Great Game. The region was contested during the Anglo-Afghan Wars, with control shifting between the British, Sikhs and Afghans. After the Second Anglo-Afghan War ended in 1880, the Khyber region came under British control, and the policy of paying local tribes to maintain the route's security was implemented. The British invested in infrastructure development, building roads, railways, and telegraph lines through the pass. For strategic reasons, after World War I, the government of British India built a heavily engineered railway through the Pass. The Khyber Pass Railway, from Jamrud, near Peshawar, to the Afghan border near Landi Kotal was opened in 1925. A common phrase during British colonial period described the length of what was then British India as "Khyber to Kanyakumari".{{cite book|last=Nalwa|first=Vanit |title=Hari Singh Nalwa, "champion of the Khalsaji" (1791-1837)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ULhgNexD92QC&pg=PA318|year=2009|publisher=Manohar|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-81-7304-785-5|pages=318–}}{{cite news |last1=Rajghatta |first1=Chidanand |title=Attock to Cuttack, PM Narendra Modi causes a stir |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/attock-to-cuttack-pm-narendra-modi-causes-a-stir/articleshow/59332065.cms |newspaper=The Economic Times |access-date=23 June 2020 |language=en |date=27 June 2017}}

During World War II, concrete dragon's teeth were erected on the valley floor due to British fears of an invasion of India by the Axis powers.{{cite web |url=http://www.lonelyplanet.com/pakistan/north-west-frontier-province/the-khyber-pass |title=Introducing The Khyber Pass |publisher=Lonelyplanet.com |date=24 March 2009 |access-date=12 November 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607080116/http://www.lonelyplanet.com/pakistan/north-west-frontier-province/the-khyber-pass |archive-date=7 June 2011 }}

File:Khyber pass.jpeg, the entrance gate of the Khyber Pass]]

Following the partition of India in 1947, the Khyber Pass became part of Pakistan. Passenger services through the pass have been intermittent, with the Khyber Steam Safari, a joint venture between a private company and Pakistan Railways, operating in the 1990s.

The Pass became widely known to thousands of Westerners and Japanese who traveled it in the days of the hippie trail, taking a bus or car from Kabul to the Afghan border. At the Pakistani frontier post, travellers were advised not to wander away from the road, as the location was a barely controlled Federally Administered Tribal Area. Then, after customs formalities, a quick daylight drive through the Pass was made. Monuments left by British Indian Army units from the era of British colonial rule, as well as hillside forts, could be viewed from the highway.

The area of the Khyber Pass has been connected with a counterfeit arms industry that makes various types of weapons known to gun collectors as Khyber Pass copies using local steel and blacksmiths' forges. To the north of the Khyber Pass lies the country of the Shalmani tribe and Mullagori tribe. To the south is Afridi Tirah, while the inhabitants of villages in the Pass itself are Afridi clansmen. Throughout the centuries, Pashtun clans, particularly the Afridis and the Afghan Shinwari, have regarded the Pass as their own preserve and have levied a toll on travellers for safe conduct. Since this has long been their main source of income, resistance to challenges to the Shinwari's authority has often been fierce.

{{update|section|date=January 2021}}

File:KhyberRailway 02.jpg, currently closed.]]

During the War in Afghanistan, the Khyber Pass was a major route for resupplying military armament and food to NATO forces in the Afghan theater of conflict since the US started the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Almost 80% of the NATO and US supplies that were brought in by road were transported through the Khyber Pass. It was also used to transport civilians from the Afghan side to the Pakistani one. Until the end of 2007, the route had been relatively safe, since the tribes living there (mainly the Afridi, a Pashtun tribe) were paid by the Pakistani government to keep the area safe.

In January 2009, Pakistan sealed off the bridge as part of a military offensive against Taliban guerrillas. This military operation was mainly focused on Jamrud, a district on the Khyber road. The target was to “dynamite or bulldoze homes belonging to men suspected of harboring or supporting Taliban militants or carrying out other illegal activities”.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/world/asia/03pstan.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss |title=Pakistan Briefly Reopens Key NATO Supply Route |access-date=18 June 2012 |work=The New York Times |first=Richard A. |last=Oppel Jr |date=2 January 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520182953/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/world/asia/03pstan.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss |archive-date=20 May 2013 }}

This increasingly unstable situation in northwest Pakistan made the US and NATO broaden supply routes, through Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). Even the option of supplying material through the Iranian far southeastern port of Chabahar was considered.{{cite web |url=http://www.understandingwar.org/pakistan-and-afghanistan |title=Pakistan and Afghanistan |publisher=Institute for the Study of War |access-date=18 June 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209091839/http://www.understandingwar.org/pakistan-and-afghanistan |archive-date=9 February 2012 }}

In 2010, the already complicated relationship with Pakistan (always accused by the US of hosting the Taliban in this border area without reporting it) became tougher after the NATO forces, under the pretext of mitigating the Taliban's power over this area, executed an attack with drones over the Durand line, passing the frontier of Afghanistan and killing three Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan answered by closing the pass on 30 September which caused a convoy of several NATO trucks to queue at the closed border.{{cite web |url=http://www.therightperspective.org/2010/10/12/pakistan-reopens-khyber-pass-to-usnato/ |title=Pakistan Reopens Khyber Pass To US/NATO |access-date=18 June 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724134609/http://www.therightperspective.org/2010/10/12/pakistan-reopens-khyber-pass-to-usnato/ |archive-date=24 July 2012 }} This convoy was attacked by extremists apparently linked to Al Qaida which caused the destruction of more than 29 oil tankers and trucks and the killing of several soldiers.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/10/05/ST2010100506293.html |title=Pakistan reopens border to NATO supply trucks |publisher=Washington Post Foreign Service |author=Karin Brulliard |date=9 October 2010 |access-date=18 June 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110209120315/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/10/05/ST2010100506293.html |archive-date=9 February 2011 }}

In August 2011, the activity at the Khyber pass was again halted by the Khyber Agency administration due to the more possible attacks of the insurgency over the NATO forces, which had suffered a period of large number of assaults over the trucks heading to supply the NATO and ISAF coalitions all over the frontier line.{{cite web |url=https://www.nation.com.pk/17-Aug-2011/nato-supplies-via-khyber-pass-halted-due-to-security |title=Nato supplies via Khyber Pass halted due to security |author=Ahmad Nabi |date=17 August 2011 |access-date=18 June 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111174602/http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/politics/17-Aug-2011/Nato-supplies-via-Khyber-Pass-halted-due-to-security |archive-date=11 January 2012 }}

Image:Pakistan_Khyber_Pass_IMG_9928.jpg|Khyber Pass Gateway southbound towards Peshawar

Image:Pakistan_Khyber_Pass_IMG_9792.jpg|Typical Pakistani transport truck and passengers

Image:Pakistan_Khyber_Pass_IMG_9903.jpg|Washed out bridge

Image:KhyberRailway 01.jpg|The Khyber Railway. With a Pakistan Railways HGS 2-8-0 at front and rear a charter train climbs the Khyber Pass through a series of zig-zags to gain height

Image:Liebigbild-Bala Hissar and Khaiber Pass.jpg|An advertisement card from 1910 depicting Khaiber Pass

File:Army Camp near Khyber Pass.jpg|A camp of the British Indian Army near the Khyber Pass (c. 1920)

Image:Mountain passes of Afghanistan2.png|Mountain passes of Afghanistan

File:Khyber-Pass.jpg|

File:Khyber Pass Area Map.jpg|

KhyberPassPakistan.jpg|

{{refimprove-section|date=October 2017}}

A number of locations around the world have been named after the Khyber Pass:

• A steep and twisting minor road in Mugdock Country Park near Glasgow, Scotland. The road is a landmark along the West Highland Way and is popular among local road cyclists.{{Cite web|url=https://www.trailforks.com/trails/khyber-pass-46210/|title=Khyber Pass Trail at Mugdock Park|website=Trailforks|language=en|access-date=30 March 2020}}
• A suburb of Civil Lines, Delhi, India.[http://www.mapsofindia.com/delhi/khyber-pass.html Khyber Pass Map] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111030194959/http://www.mapsofindia.com/delhi/khyber-pass.html |date=30 October 2011 }}. Mapsofindia.com (1 March 2013). Retrieved on 12 July 2013.{{cite web|url=http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Khyber+Pass+Delhi&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x390cfdb93379cf6d:0xa7a3d2284306f7ab,Khyber+Pass,+Civil+Lines,+New+Delhi,+Delhi,+India&gl=uk&ei=r-vUTZ-UF4eg8QOemvzXDA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ8gEwAA|title= Khyber Pass Delhi|work= Google Maps|access-date= 12 July 2013}}{{Cite web |url=http://indiapropertyexpert.com/mgf-city-khyber-pass-north-delhi.htm |title=MGF City , Khyber Pass , North Delhi |access-date=19 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310123032/http://indiapropertyexpert.com/mgf-city-khyber-pass-north-delhi.htm |archive-date=10 March 2012 |url-status=dead }}
• Khyber Pass Road, a major road in the suburb of Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand ([https://www.google.com/maps/place/Khyber+Pass+Rd,+Auckland,+New+Zealand/@-36.8660807,174.769711,967m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x6d0d47dec8819525:0x25b0e169619e11c4!8m2!3d-36.8658339!4d174.7695836?hl=en Google Earth view])
• An artificial rockwork feature at East Park, Kingston upon Hull, UK.{{cite web|url=http://static.hullcc.gov.uk/hullinprint/archive/september2002/easts_eden.php|title=East's Eden|publisher=Kingston upon Hull City Council|date=September 2002|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517222532/http://static.hullcc.gov.uk/hullinprint/archive/september2002/easts_eden.php|archive-date=17 May 2013}}{{NHLE | num=1001519 |access-date=14 January 2013}}
• Khyber Road in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland.{{cite web |last1=McNally |first1=Frank |title=An Irishman's Diary |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-1.1313471 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=20 February 2013 |access-date=2 May 2021}}
• A steep and twisting road up the West Cliff at Whitby, UK.
• A pedestrian alley in Stromness, Orkney, Scotland{{Cite web|url=https://www.openstreetmap.org/|title=OpenStreetMap|website=OpenStreetMap|language=en|access-date=7 August 2019}}
• Khyber Pass Pub in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Khyber Himalayan Resort and Spa in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir.
• A mountain bike trail connecting the Top of the World trail at Whistler, British Columbia to the Whistler Creekside Village.{{cn|date=August 2018}}
• A subway in the King's Cross St Pancras tube station. After the King's Cross fire in November 1987, it was replaced.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/518170.new-subway-to-replace-kings-cross-khyber-pass/|title=New subway to replace Kings Cross "Khyber Pass"|website=This Is Local London|date=12 August 2004 }}

Other references include the following:

• The bus journey on this road was belle-lettered very beautifully, and a part of its first act, in the selective memoir Deshe Bideshe (1948) by Syed Mujtaba Ali.
• Before the partition of India, the pass was mentioned as part of common Hindustani phrase used to describe the length of colonial India, "Khyber sé Kanyakumari".
• 'Khyber Pass' is Cockney rhyming slang meaning 'arse'. This use is alluded to in the 1968 film Carry On Up the Khyber.
• In the 1975 movie The Man Who Would Be King, the character Peachy Carnehan tells Rudyard Kipling how he and his comrade-in-arms Danny Dravot had fought under Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts yard by yard through the Khyber Pass during the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878-1880
• The podcast Twilight Histories has an episode called "Napoleon in Afghanistan" which partly takes place in the Khyber Pass.{{cn|date=August 2018}}
• The Vampire Weekend song "M79" references the Khyber Pass.
• The Tom Cochrane song "Life Is a Highway" (covered by Rascal Flatts and others) references the Khyber Pass.
• The album Rio Grande Blood by Ministry (2006) has a song called "Khyber Pass" which references it as a possible hiding place for then missing and at large Osama bin Laden. This song was also featured at the end of the film The Hurt Locker.
• The song "Red War" by Probot, featuring Max Cavalera on vocals, mentions the pass.
• British rock band Pink Floyd references the Khyber in their song "Up the Khyber", featured on the soundtrack to the film More.
• In an episode of the cartoon series The World of Commander McBragg titled “Khyber Pass”, the eponymous commander has to fend off ten thousand screaming tribesmen in the Khyber Pass.
• Parts of the 1985 Jay McInerney book Ransom take place in or near the Khyber Pass.
• The Khyber pass features in several of Rudyard Kipling's poems: it appears by name in "The Ballad of the King's Jest",{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/khyber-pass/|title=The Khyber Pass|last=National Geographic Society|date=21 November 2011|website=National Geographic Society|language=en|access-date=7 August 2019|archive-date=7 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807221242/https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/khyber-pass/|url-status=dead}} as "the Pass" in "Arithmetic on the Frontier", and semi-fictionalized as the Tongue of Jagai in "The Ballad of East and West".{{Cite web|url=http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_eastwest1_p.htm|title=The Ballad of East and West|website=www.kiplingsociety.co.uk|access-date=7 August 2019|archive-date=22 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190822223407/http://kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_eastwest1_p.htm|url-status=dead}}
• In the 2023 movie Ghosted the farmer Cole played by Chris Evans is abducted to the Khyber Pass and rescued by CIA operative Sadie played by Ana de Armas as shown by the location card at 35'15", although the film was actually filmed in New Mexico.{{Cite web|url=https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/where-was-ghosted-filmed-all-ghosted-filming-locations/|title=Where was 'Ghosted' filmed? All 'Ghosted' filming locations|date=21 April 2023 |access-date=27 April 2023}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.atlasofwonders.com/2023/04/where-was-ghosted-filmed.html|title=Where was Ghosted filmed?|access-date=27 April 2023}}
• The Belleville boot company has an 8-inch combat boot line named Khyber.

• Ali Masjid
• Bab-e-Khyber
• Battle of Ali Masjid
• Battle of Khyber Pass
• Bolan Pass
• Carry On... Up the Khyber, film
• Dasht-e Yahudi
• Dorah Pass
• Durand Line
• Khyber Agency
• Khyber Pass Copy
• Khyber Pass Railway
• Khyber Pass Economic Corridor
• Khyber Rifles
• Khyber train safari

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|author-link=George Molesworth|last=Molesworth|first= Lt-Gen. G.N.|title=Afghanistan 1919 : an Account of Operations in the Third Afghan War|publisher=Asia Publishing House|date= 1962|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fqscAAAAMAAJ|oclc=7233999}}

{{Sister project links|voy=Khyber Pass}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111011140147/http://www.epeshawar.memebot.com/khyber_gate.html History of Khyber Pass, Pakistan] (archived)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160324194029/http://www.twilighthistories.com/2015/07/28/napoleon-in-afghanistan/ Twilight histories, Napoleon in Afghanistan] (archived)

{{Khyber Pakhtunkhwa topics}}

{{Afghanistan topics}}

{{Mountain passes of Pakistan}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Afghanistan–Pakistan border crossings

Category:Landforms of Paktia Province

Category:Mountain passes of Afghanistan

Category:Mountain passes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Category:Mountain passes of the Hindu Kush

Category:Rail mountain passes

Category:Sites along the Silk Road

Category:Mountain passes of Pakistan