By Darwaish
I think this should not be difficult but lets see. Can you identify what this is? Where? And what is that in the background?
22 comments posted
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Zaidan or Zaida is in Topi to be precise, one of its largest towns. It is 12 km from Topi, 10 km from Swabi and around 17-18 km from GIKI. You can reach there from GIKI campus in roughly 10 minutes. If you are travelling from Tarbela towards Swabi, you will come across Topi and then small towns of Marghez (probably the smallest town of Topi), Kla Bat and then Zaidan.
Maybe, you are right. I drove past GIKI a few years ago, but since I had gone from Islamabad I approached it via Tarbela and didn’t get the sense it was anywhere near Takht Bahi.
I don’t know about Zaidane, but there is one Zaida in Swabi district.
I am pretty sure that this is GIKI. Swabi and Mardan are sister districts and the distance between two is hardly 40-45 KM (btw Takht-i-Bahi is also 17 KM outside Mardan in a small town Shahbaz Garhi). It takes hardly 50-60 minutes to reach Takht-i-Bahi from GIKI campus. Several references are available to support this including GIKI website.
Also note that the picture the is taken from the top of a hill behind the buddhist monastery and from there one can look down across the plains as far as Peshawar on one side and up to the Malakand Pass and the hills of Swat on the other and towards north is the Hindu Kush.
It is very interesting indeed and it would be great if anyone can provide further information on that. Any GIKI student/faculty reading this?
PS: while looking for information on the subject I also came to know that there is a town called Zaidane in NWFP :)
Darwaish,
It can’t be GIKI because GIKI is in Topi, ditrict Swabi. This monastery, as you confirmed, is in Takht Bhai near Mardan — different district and quite a distance from Topi — unless it happens to be second campus of GIKI. Could you please double check on this?
the white structure you see on the top left corner is actually Ghulam Ishaque Khan Institute. Susprised? I was saving this for the follow-up post but anyways :)
http://www.giki.edu.pk/campus/ .. check the link for a larger photograph.
and like MQ said, ATP definitely needs a sayeen, a jogi and a sufi ;)
The monestary at Takhtbai and the one in Jaulian, Taxila, look very much alike. The building plans and the building materials (stone) in both cases are similar. And so is the topography — hills.
PMA
The white building in the background, I suspect, is a madrassa.
I think we could use a Soofi and Saeen as well on this blog. Actually, we desperately need them. Don’t we?