Taxila

Taxila is one of South Asia’s richest archaeological sites, with ancient cities excavated.

In 326BC Alexander the great stopped here en route to India, and in the 1st century AD the Kushans built their city here, with Taxila the cultured capital of an empire stretching across the subcontinent into Central Asia. It was the birthplace of fusion of Greek and Indian art, and also the place from where Buddhism spread into China.

The entrance fee for the museum is 200 rupees, and entrance to all 7 archaeological sites cost 200 rupees. The 7 sites are dispersed within a radius of 2km, so you could just choosea few to visit which was what we did. Hired an auto-rickshaw to ferry us for around 400 rupees.

Visited Dharmarajika, Sirkap, Mohra Moradu and Jaulian and were immediately archaeologically- saturated. It was definitely interesting to see but its just another case of “when you have seen one, you seen all”, with a lot of the architectural designs being rather similar.

Took the train back to Rawalpindi and the train was rather empty.

Monastery with dozens of closet-sized meditation cells

An orderly walled city in the 2nd century BC. The idea is nice, but what’s left is rather disappointing; most buildings were just reduced to a few feet tall walls of stones

The Museum. Home to many old artefacts

Healing Buddha with a circular hole at his navel. The hole was intended for worshippers to place their finger in when offering prayers against certain bodily ailments. According to popular relief, some illnesses are effectively cured by merely touching his image or calling out his name.