Pakistan

Takht-i-Bahi

WHS Score 3.04
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Votes 19 Average 3.5
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Votes for Takht-i-Bahi

1.5

  • Erik Jelinek

2.0

  • Philipp Leu

2.5

  • Solivagant
  • Zoë Sheng

3.0

  • Rvieira
  • Stanislaw Warwas

3.5

  • Bill Maurmann
  • Els Slots
  • Jon Opol
  • Richard Stone
  • Szucs Tamas

4.0

  • Alexander Lehmann
  • Atila Ege
  • Hanming
  • Roger Ourset

4.5

  • Adrian Turtschi
  • Mihai Dascalu
  • shoaibmnagi

5.0

  • Harry Mitsidis

The "Buddhist Ruins of Takht-i-Bahi and Neighbouring City Remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol" are the remains of an ancient Buddhist monastery and a fortified city.

The hilltop monastery of Takht-i-Bahi dates from the 1st century CE and was used until the 7th century. It consists of numerous stupas and monastic cells sticking to the high, rocky spurs. Much of the friezes and statuary were removed between 1907 and 1913. Sahr-i-Bahlol was a small fortified town from the same period.

Community Perspective: Solivagant visited it on a day trip by car from Islamabad and found “the many niches largely empty of statues”. He concluded that it has less detail to see but is more spectacular in location than the Buddhist ruins at Taxila.

Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Buddhist Ruins of Takht-i-Bahi and Neighbouring City Remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol (ID: 140)
Country
Pakistan
Status
Inscribed 1980 Site history
History of Takht-i-Bahi
1980: Inscribed
Inscribed
WHS Type
Cultural
Criteria
  • iv
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
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Community Reviews

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First published: 08/01/18.

Michael Novins

Takht-I-Bahi

Takht-i-Bahi (Inscribed)

Takht-i-Bahi by Michael Novins

I left Islamabad early on a December 2017 morning on the Grand Trunk Road to Taxila, an hour to the northwest, to visit the WHS's ruined second-century Buddhist monastery. From Taxila, it was a two-hour drive to Takht-i-Bahi, another Buddhist monastery, which was abandoned in the seventh century. From Takht-i-Bahi, it was less than an hour to Peshawar, where I arrived just in time for Friday prayers at the 17th-century Mahabat Khan Mosque. The mosque is located down one of the many narrow passageways in Qissa Khawani Bazaar, where the friendly vendors were surprised to see an overseas customer. In fact, I didn't seen any other foreign visitors in the heavily fortified and militarized city, maybe because it's less than 40 miles from the border with Afghanistan.

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First published: 29/01/14.

Solivagant

Takht-I-Bahi

Takht-i-Bahi (Inscribed)

Takht-i-Bahi by Solivagant

Takht-i-Bahi was the furthest into the state of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North West Frontier Province) we ventured during our trip to Pakistan. We made a full day return trip by road from Islamabad rather then overnighting in the much closer Peshawar (c80 kms) as, in Nov 2013, the UK Foreign Office was warning against travel to that city and that would have invalidated our insurance if we had gone there. So we only went within 50 kms of there as we passed through the city of Mardan which itself was in the news in Sept 2012 for the arson of its Lutheran Church during riots over the showing of the movie “Innocence of Muslims” in the USA. (Exactly 1 year later in late Sept 2013, suicide bombers killed 127 people in Peshawar when they blew up a church there specifically targeting the Christian population).

The site is just 15kms beyond up a series of back streets from the town of Takhat bhai with a “grand” road built to cover just the last 200 metres. The Chowkidar joins us as “guide” – even though we have our own and we are also assigned a policeman with machine gun to escort/protect us. So that’s 2 more people to “tip”! We ask how many foreigners visit and they say only a handful each month – mainly Japanese apparently – presumably because of the Buddhist aspects.

The site lies along a track which climbs 160 metres or so above the car park. And, …

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First published: 16/12/10.

Anonymous

Takht-I-Bahi

Takht-i-Bahi (Inscribed)

Takht-i Bahi

I visited the ruins at Takht-e-Bai in 1968 when I was 21 years old and in the USAFSS stationed in Peshawar Pakistan (the same base Gary Powers departed on his ill-fated U-2 flight over Russia in 1960). Takht-e-Bai is one of my fondest memories and and unforgettable experience. Would love to visit it again, but times are not so friendly there now.

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