The Peshawar Museum

With the cost of 60000, in the memory  of Queen Victoria The Peshawar Museum  was built in 1906. The Rs. 45000 was donated by the community of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and  the rest Rs. 15000 was given by the Director General of Archaeology, India. Initially the museum was the house of excavated Gandharan Sculptures from the sites of Shah-Ji-Ki-Dheri, Sahri Bahlol, Takht-i-Bahi and later from Jamal Garhi and other Gandharan sites. The museum has two storey building. It is a union of the fabulous  British and Mughal architectures.  The museum has at first consisted of a major hallway and two side walkways on the ground and first floor, surrounded by four chic cupolas and small pinnacles on all over the corners. Later the two halls were added on both sides eastern and western in 1969. Lately the project of the Extension of Peshawar Museum has added Islamic Block, laboratory, two halls, administrative centre of the Provincial Directorate and a Cafeteria and the project also includes complete modernizing of the existing building by substituting showcases, lighting, tagging and renovation. This new Islamic Block is situated behind the main building that is completed in 2005.

The Peshawar Museum has the possession of 14156 items. It embraces the Gandharan sculptures, Coins, Manuscripts and replica of the Holy Quran, Inscriptions, artillery, Dresses, Jewellery, Kalash Effigies, Mughal era Paintings, family objects, local and Persian handicrafts.  The all collections are divided into five main sections:  the Gandharan, coins, Islamic, Ethnological and Iranian.

The main hall contained the main relic casket with Kharoshthi inscription. Along with it the museum has Buddhist stone sculptures , panels, architectural elements, stucco, sculptures terracotta figurines and toiletry objects . The coin section has 8625 items in total. They are Punch marked coins, and the Indus Greeks coins , Scytho-Parthians, Kushans, White Huns, Hindu Shahis and Islamic coins of the Ghaznavids, Ghaurids, Slave Dynasties, Tughlaqs, Lodhis, Mughals, Durranis, Sikh and British periods. The material of coins are Gold, Silver, Copper and Billon, the shape is also various like round, square and rectangular.

One of the richest museums in Pakistan with a term of huge Islamic collection. The gallery has the wooden porticos of mosques, Arabic & Persian inscriptions, Multani tiles and ceramics, the dress and weapons of Sayed Ahmad Shaheed Brailvi, paintings of the Mughal and later periods, Islamic metal work in bronze, silver and calligraphic specimens. The most important are ten scrolls of 1224 AD, each scroll contains three Paras of the Holy Quran. A further important scroll of  Sultan al Arifin Khwaja Bayazid Bastami which is 915 cm long and 45.75 cm wide. After 2003, the new 29 hand-written copies of the Quran and 65 manuscripts and books has been added to the gallery.

The Eastern gallery is Ethnological section exhibited the culture and mode of life of the major tribes of the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and the Kalash of Chitral. It exhibits 348 items in which the major item is kalashan female and male figures. It also has the commemorative effigy, jewellery, agricultural tools, household objects of Bronze wood and leather, wooden stools, baskets, dresses, swords, daggers, spears, bows, arrows, shields, muzzle loaded guns, revolvers, pistols and gun powder boxes. The Iranian Consulate donated 97 pieces to the Peshawar Museum in 2003 which include modern calligraphic specimens, paintings, photographs, ornamental objects in silver bronze, ivory and glass, toiletry objects and pen holders. These objects are separately displayed in the eastern aisle on the first floor. Let take a cheap flight to Peshawar to have fun and explore the originality of the Pakistan.