Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 1).djvu/362

342 Kabul, and finally fell into the hands of Ranjit Singh. His Italian general Avitabile ruled it with an iron rod. In 1901 it became the capital of the new N. W. F. Province.

The Town lies near the Bara stream in a canal-irrigated tract. On the north-west it is commanded by the Bala Hissar, a fort outside the walls. The suburbs with famous fruit gardens are on the south side, and the military and civil stations to the west. The people to be seen in the bazars of Peshawar are more interesting than any of its buildings. The Gor Khatri, part of which is now the tahsil, from which a bird's-eye view of the town can be obtained, was successively the site of a Buddhist monastery, a Hindu temple, a rest-house built by Jahangir's Queen, Nur Jahan, and the residence of Avitabile. The most noteworthy Muhammadan building is Muhabbat Khan's mosque. Avitabile used to hang people from its minarets. The Hindu merchants live in the quarter known as Andar Shahr, the scene of destructive fires in 1898 and 1913. Peshawar is now a well-drained town with a good water supply. It is an entrepot of trade with Kabul and Bokhara. From the former come raw silk and fruit, and from the latter gold and silver thread and lace en route to Kashmir. The Kabul! and Bokharan traders carry back silk cloth, cotton piece goods, sugar, tea, salt, and Kashmir shawls.

Simla (31.6 N., 77.1 E.) lies on a spur of the Central Himalaya at a mean height exceeding 7000' feet. A fine hill, Jakko, rising 1000 feet higher, and clothed with deodar, oak, and rhododendron, occupies the east of the station and many of the houses are on its slopes. The other heights are Prospect Hill and Observatory Hill in the western part of the ridge. Viceregal Lodge is a conspicuous object on the latter, and below, between it and the Annandale race-course, is a fine glen, where the visitor in April from the dry and dusty plains can gather