Pushkalavati

Pushkalavati was the capital of the ancient region of Gandhara, located in present-day Pakistan [1]. Its ruins sit on the outskirts of modern Charsadda in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 35-42 km northeast of Peshawar, at the banks of Jindi River near the junction of Swat and Kabul Rivers [1]. The earliest archaeological remains at Bala Hisar mound date to 1400-800 BCE, making it one of the oldest urban centers in the region [1]. Pushkalavati may have become an Achaemenid regional settlement around 520 BCE and remained an important city through the early centuries CE [1].