Khyber Pakhtunkhwa previously called NWFP(North-West Frontier Province) till 2010, is one of the four administrative provinces in Pakistan, located in the northwestern region of the country. It shares border for over 100 kilometers with Afghanistan. It is the third-largest province of Pakistan by the size of both economy and population, though it is geographically the smallest of four provinces. It has 17.9% of Pakistan’s total population, with the majority of the province’s residents being Pashtuns.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s provincial capital and largest city is Peshawar, and Mardan is the second-largest city. It is bordered with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to the west; Gilgit–Baltistan to the northeast; Azad Kashmir, Islamabad and Punjab to the east and southeast. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa doesn’t formally share a border with Balochistan, that instead borders Federally Administered tribal Areas. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa together shares a global border with Afghanistan, thereto the province is joined via the historic Khyber Pass.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the area of the traditional kingdom Gandhara, along with the ruins of its capital Pushkalavati, close to modern-day Charsadda. And so the foremost distinguished center of learning inside the Peshawar city, Takht-i-Bahi.It has been ruled by the Persians, Greeks, Mauryans, Kushans, Shahis, Ghaznavids, Mughals, Afghanistan, Sikhs, and British Empire at varied points throughout its long history.
Geographically the province may be divided into two zones: the northern one extending from the ranges of the range of mountains to the borders of Peshawar basin and also the southern one extending from Peshawar to the Derajat basin.
The northern zone is cold and snowy in winters with rain-fall and pleasant summers with the exception of Peshawar basin that’s hot in summer and cold in winter. it’s moderate rain. The southern zone is dry with hot summers and relatively cold winters and scanty rainfall.
The important rivers that cross the province are the Kabul, Swat, Chitral, Kunar, Siran, Panjkora, Bara, Kurram, Dor, Haroo, Gomal and Zhob.
Its cover peaks and luxurious green valleys of bizarre beauty have large potential for tourism.
The climate of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa varies immensely for a locality of its size, encompassing most of the varied climate varieties found in Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The province stretching southward from the Baroghil Pass inside the range of mountains covers nearly six degrees of latitude; it’s primarily a mountainous region. Dera Ismail Khan is one of the foremost famous places in South Asia whereas within the mountains to the north the weather is gentle within the summer and intensely cold within the winter. The air is generally very dry; consequently, the daily and annual vary of temperature is form of large. rainfall additionally varies widely. though large area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are usually dry, the province collectively contains the wettest parts of Islamic Republic of Pakistan in its eastern fringe specially in monsoon season from middle June to middle Sept.
Urdu, being the national and official language, serves as a language for inter-ethnic communications, and usually Pashto is that the language among communities that talk different ethnic languages. English is co-official and jointly used in education, whereas Arabic is utilized for religious purposes and education. there’s some population in Peshawar city World Health Organization speak Persian since nineteenth century.
Hindko and Pashto folk music are in style in Pakhtunkhwa and have a rich tradition going back a few years. The foremost instruments are the rubab, mangey and harmonium. Khowar folk music is in style in Chitral and northern Swat. The tunes of khowar music are terribly entirely different from those of Pashto, and so the main instrument is that the Chitrali sitar. A form of band music composed of clarinets (surnai) and drums is famous in Chitral. It’s played at polo matches and dances. An identical form of band music is played inside the neighbouring Northern Areas.