Bala Hisar Fort

                Bala Hisar Fort

Bala Hisar is a heavily-guarded fort that is located now centrally (in Old Peshawar it would have been in the north-western corner). It was built in the 16th century and has seen a long history through Mughal Emperors, the Sikhs and the British and has been destroyed and rebuilt again at least once. It is used today by Frontier Corps, or "fauji" as the locals call them.
All you need to do is look at Bala Hisar from afar to appreciate its beauty. Visually you can tell it has been around for centuries, and provides a majestic view over Peshawar and surrounding valley.
I had the privilege of being granted permission to enter Bala Hisar Fort and have a guide appointed - but I did this with a huge risk - they did NOT know that I was a foreigner.
Bala Hisar is only open to foreigners from a special letter of entry granted from the Ministry of Interior from Islamabad. My husband has a family member involved with the Government of NWFP and we were granted permission to enter due to the family contact. This is a very rare occurrence to be allowed in.
Beyond the gates is a steep road that winds up to the top. It is lush and green in there, with several buildings and what seem like rooms for the FC members to live in. There are multiple cannon look-out points that have an excellent view of the Fly-Over, Lady Reading Hospital and the city itself. It is pristinely quite on Bala Hisar, it makes you forget that 92 feet below is the constant hum of auto-rickshaws, horns, and pedestrians crossing the streets unwarily.
Our guide (who wishes to not be mentioned as it was a risk to his employment by allowing me take pictures and even be there) showed us the gallows room where criminals were hung - having being last used I believe in 1960 or so. The basement is the old "doctors room" where it is said the doctor would remove the recently hanged criminal and pronounce them dead and issue a certificate. This room is eerily cold and many guards say they hear sounds now and again.
In the center of the grassy area, stands a moderate sized exquisite mosque. It has a massive slab of marble situated outside and used for prayer when the mosque fills capacity inside. It was beautiful to watch a man pray so peacefully knowing that not far below us, was a bustling city on the old Silk Road.
A great end to my trip to Bala Hisar was the "Museum" they have. It is several rooms along a corridor. Each room has its own theme, some being "Generals of Pakistan", "recovered weapons", "Frontier Corps uniforms", etc. They finally have a Souvenir Room with some neat gift-type collectibles. I recommend the oldest picture of Bala Hisar taken, which you can purchase framed for 1000 Rs.

Attock Fort

                 Attock Fort
Attock Khurd during the reign of Akbar the Great from 1581 to 1583 under the supervision of Khawaja Shamsuddin Khawafi to protect the passage of the Indus.
Attock (Attock Khurd) is a fort and small town in the Punjab  on the left or east bank of the Indus, 942 miles from the sea, and close below the place where it receives the water of the Kabol river, and first becomes navigable. The name, signifying obstacle, is supposed to have been given to it under the presumption that no scrupulous Hindo would proceed westward of it; but this strict principle, like many others of similar nature, is little acted on. Some state that the name was given by the Emperor Akbar, because he here found much difficulty in crossing the river. The river itself is at this place frequently by the natives called Attock. Here is a bridge, formed usually of from twenty to thirty boats, across the stream, at a spot where it is 537 feet wide. In summer, when the melting of the snows in the lofty mountains to the north raises the stream so that the bridge becomes endangered, it is withdrawn, and the communication is then effected by means of a ferry.
The banks of the river are very high, so that the enormous accession which the volume of water receives during inundation scarcely affects the breadth, but merely increases the depth. The rock forming the banks is of a dark-coloured slate, polished by the force of the stream, so as to shine like black marble. Between these, "one clear blue stream shot past." The depth of the Indus here is thirty feet in the lowest state, and between sixty and seventy in the highest, and runs at the rate of six miles an hour. There is a ford at some distance above the confluence of the river of Khabol; but the extreme coldness and rapidity of the water render it at all times very dangerous, and on the slightest inundation quite impracticable. The bridge is supported by an association of boatmen, who receive the revenue of a village allotted for this purpose by the Emperor Akbar, and a small daily pay as long as the bridge stands, and also levy a toll on all passengers.
On the right bank, opposite Attock, is Khyrabad—a fort built, according to some, by the Emperor Akbar, according to others by Nadir Shah. This locality is, in a military and commercial point of view, of much importance, as the Indus is here crossed by the great route which, proceeding from Kabol eastward through the Khyber Pass into the Punjab, forms the main line of communication between Afghanistan and Northern India. The river was here repeatedly crossed by the British armies, during the late military operations in Afghanistan; and here, according to the general opinion, Alexander, subsequently Timur, the Tartar conqueror, and, still later, Nadir Shah, crossed; but there is much uncertainty on these points.
The fortress was erected by the Emperor Akbar, in 1581 to command the passage; but, though strongly built of stone on the high and steep bank of the river, it could offer no effectual resistance to a regular attack, being commanded by the neighbouring heights. Its form is that of a parallelogram: it is 800 yards long and 400 wide. The population of the town, which is enclosed within the walls of the fort, is estimated at 2000.
It featured a prominent role in Afghan-Sikh Wars during the Battle of Attock. Today it is sandwiched between Peshawar Road on one side and the River Indus on the other.