The Peshawar Rhapsody Pushpapura to Peshawar The city of
Peshawar is about 2000 years old and is one of the oldest cities
in the world. The Kushan Kings moved their winter capital from
Pushkalavati to the present site in the 2nd century AD and named
it Pushpapura. It is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning City
of Flowers. Peshawar's flowers are also mentioned in Babur's
memoirs Tuzk-e-Babri. Invading Aryans, Greeks, Mongols, Turks,
and Mughals have attacked it one after another to pass through
it towards the distant lands of India. It was a fortified town
with raised walls and sixteen gates. None of the gates survive.
Parts of the original wall are visible in some places of the old
city specially the outer wall of the Lady Reading Hospital is
actually part of the old wall. It was the main city enroute to
India and its fabled riches. Peshawar lost its glory with the
demise of the Kushan dynasty in the 6th century AD and remained
a forgotten town for a thousand years till the Mughals
discovered its strategic v