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<p>The Buddhist monastery of Takht-e-Bahi is 14 kilometres (nine miles) northwest of Mardan on the road to Swat. A direct road runs from Charsadda to the village of Takht-e-Bahi (see map on page 308). Turn left (north) at the crossroads in Charsadda, and after exactly two kilometres (one and a quarter miles) turn right on the single-lane surfaced road, which leads through rich irrigated farmland. Keep to the main road and after 22 kilometres (14 miles) you come to the main Mardan-Swat road. Turn left here and proceed one kilometre (half a mile) to Takht-e-Bahi.</p><p>

To get to the ruins cross the level crossing in the centre of the village of Takht- e-Bahi, and after 500 metres (yards) turn right at a sign reading ‘Archaeological ruins of Takht-e-Bahi 3 km’ (two miles) in English. Cross the railway, turn left at the gate of the sugar mill, and a little further on turn right down a dirt road. You will see the ruins of a large Hindu Shahi fort on top of the hill to the right. Continue on to the end of the track—the ruins of the monastery are straight ahead. It is a steep walk 500 metres (yards) up the hill to the site, and a further 500 metres to the top of the hill.</p><p>

Takht-e-Bahi is the most impressive and complete Buddhist monastery in Pakistan. From the top of the hill behind the monastery you can see down across the plains as far as Peshawar on one side, and up to the Malakand Pass and the hills of Swat pn the other.

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The monastery and stupas at Takht-e-Bahi were founded in the first century AD and abandoned in the sixth or seventh centuries. Surrounding the monastery on the ridge above it to the south, and on the spurs to the east and west, are the ruins of private housed, some three storeys high.

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