Gor Khatri and the Gorakhnath Temple

Keep the two dates apart: the archaeological sequence runs from the third century BCE, while the Gorakhnath Temple itself was built between 1838 and 1842 under Sikh rule. The site was a Mughal caravanserai in between.

This is the deepest stratified site in Peshawar. Excavations in 1992 and 1993 under Dr Farzand Ali Durrani established occupation back to at least the third century BCE, and the mound is identified with the site of Kanishka's stupa described by the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang. The standing Shiva temple is nineteenth century, but the ground it sits on carries more than two thousand years of continuous urban religious use.

Current status: A heritage complex and public park, housing the City Museum established in 2006 under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Directorate of Archaeology and Museums. Conservation of the two western gates has been undertaken. Anyone planning to travel should check entry requirements and local conditions independently and close to the date. Indian passport holders face visa restrictions for Pakistan that change with the political weather, and access to several of these sites has historically depended on organised pilgrim groups rather than individual travel.