Taxila is a wonderful trip to make with family, especially from Islamabad. There is a great deal to see; I made the journey with family from Peshawar.
1We drove from Peshawar and took the road to Taxila from Wah — itself a historic town. Taxila has many places to visit; of these we saw three.
2Our first stop was the Taxila Museum, which holds one of the finest collections of artefacts from the Gandhara civilisation and its surrounding sites.
The museum was conceived in the early 20th century to preserve the finds of the region’s extensive excavations. Construction began in 1918 under Sir John Marshall, the British archaeologist who led the digs, and the museum opened to the public in 1928.
3Next we went to one of Taxila’s old cities. Taxila was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas that existed between 600 and 300 BCE, in the lifetime of the Buddha. Four successive cities have been excavated: the oldest at the Hathial mound, then Bhir Mound, then Sirkap, and finally Sirsukh of the Kushan era.
We went to Sirkap, founded by the Indo-Greeks around 180 BCE as a fortified city, reflecting the Hellenistic influence the Greeks brought to the region. It became an important hub for trade, culture and the spread of Buddhism. The city was laid out on a grid, following Greek principles of urban design, with distinct residential, commercial and religious quarters — one of the earliest examples of such advanced town planning in South Asia. Sirkap is known for its Double-Headed Eagle Stupa, a structure that fuses Greek and Buddhist motifs.
4The third and final stop was the Jaulian monastery, a Buddhist complex of the 2nd–5th centuries CE and a UNESCO World Heritage Site within the Taxila area. It served as a centre of meditation, learning and the spread of Buddhist teaching, particularly the Mahayana school.
5After Jaulian we decided to head home.
