Taxila (Ruins of Gandhara)

Pakistan has six UNESCO World Heritage Sites, two of which are happily within striking distance of Islamabad.  This post focuses on one of them; I will post on the other soon.

You may not be familiar with the name "Taxila" but I imagine many of you are familiar with the civilization of which the ruins of Taxila are some of the most complete remnants:  the Kingdom of Gandhara.  Gandhara pre-existed Alexander the Great, but is most famous for being the furthest reach of the Hellenistic World, an amalgam of East and West, most notoriously evidenced in the Greek stylings of its Buddhist statuary.  Gandhara is also famous for its role in spreading the Buddhist religion from South Asia into Central Asia, whence it spread to East Asia, where it would flower into a majority faith long after it would die off in the land of its origin.  And, finally, Gandhara is notable as a home of Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great, one of the most powerful rulers of the Subcontinent, only surpassed by the Great Mughals and the British Raj.

Reading about Gandhara in history books was, to me, to imagine a place that seemed extremely remote.  It seemed so far east of the Western world, beyond Turkey and Iran, but also far from the parts of Asia most familiar to me. Even in my Central Asian travels it seemed somewhere distant, perhaps because I was not familiar with any of its place names, and no existing political body seemed to be a direct descendent of this Western-influenced, Buddhist state.  It was only after studying maps more closely that I learned that the heart of Gandhara lay in modern Pakistan, only an hour or more from the capital of Islamabad, with Taxila, once a Gandharan capital, the locus of generations of cities.

Taxila Ruins

The ruins of Taxila are fairly spread out (see map below), and offer great diversity in type of structure, age and state of preservation.  What you will see will depend on the amount of time you have; below is a bulleted list of some of Taxila's most famous ruins.  At each of the sites will be men who will offer to act as your guides.  Whether you can brush them off or not, they may be able to provide somewhat valuable historical information at relatively little cost.

• Taxila Museum - This is a modern structure housing some of the artifacts and best-preserved statuary from the sites.  Taxila Museums is a logical starting point for your visit, and deserves a return visit at the end of your tour.
• Bhir Mound - These are the earliest of Taxila's ruins, the city at the time of Alexander's visit. There is not much to see, but it is right by the road and the Museum.
• City of Sirkap - This is the largest of the Taxila ruins, a Bactrian city built in a Greek grid layout.  The walls of the ruins may seem uninspiring at first, but a few gems can be found, including the "Double Headed Eagle Stupa".  Another structure is said to have welcomed St. (Doubting) Thomas upon his arrival in Taxila (under the popular legend that St. Thomas traveled to India after the death of Jesus Christ) and is a place of Christian pilgrimage.
• Jandial Greek Temple - A small site, but well worth a detour, is this temple, which is in somewhat typical Greek form, though with what seems to me to be a a Levantine-type adaption of stairs in the back to the structure's roof.  This site, perhaps even more than the Gandharan art, makes alive the presence of Greek cultural influence in the region.
• Dharamarajika Stupa - This is the largest stupa in Taxila, and is thought to have been built by Emperor Ashoka himself in the third century BCE.  The stupa would have housed relics of the Buddha.  Part of the site is a small water tank surrounded by what is described as monks' cells.
• Sirsukh Ramparts - Only walls remain of these ruins dating from after Sirkap.
• Mohra Moradu Stupa - Built in the second century, these compact ruins are of interest in part because a Muslim holy site seems to have sprung up next to it.  The reuse of religious sites is of course a common phenomenon.
• Jaulian Monastery - One of the grandest ruins, and furthest away, Jaulian contains some of the nicest sculptures in situ and was the origin of many of the artifacts now found in the Museum.

Other Things To See

Just north of Taxila Museum, you will come across a street of stonecarvers.  It's quite entertaining to see them chipping away with chisels at various blocks of stone.  You can also buy their products.  Stone shops also carry plaster objects covered with pieces of mirror.  Many a tourist have driven away with disco balls or, even better, disco cats as souvenirs of their Taxila visit.  In season, the Taxila area is full of citrus fruit.

Also nearby are the Wah Garden and Kanpur Lake, on which I may blog at a later date.

Practicalities

Taxila is about an hour northwest of Islamabad on the Grand Trunk Road, a busy but uneventful and easy drive.  GT Road can be reached by driving west on Kashmir Highway.  As you escape Islamabad, GT Road will gradually climb up the Margalla Pass, over the highest point of which stands the obelisk of a monument built for John Nicholson, a British East India Company officer who died in Delhi during the Sepoy Mutiny; It is just after this that you will turn off toward Taxila, passing the buildings of Taxila Cantonment, including Heavy Industries Taxila Education City.

As you can see below, the ruins of Taxila are spread out over a wide area.  Your first stop, and maybe also your last, should be the Taxila Museum.  There is one ticket for the museum and another ticket for all of the ruins other than Jaulian, which lies in the Provice of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and therefore has a separate admission.

There is not much food to be purchased around Taxila--pack a picnic lunch.