The Khyber Pass

Thirty miles long, and in places no more than sixteen metres wide, the Pass is the principal route through the great mountain borderlands between India and Central Asia - and the path of invasion for generations of conquerors. In this ground-breaking book, Paddy Docherty charts its remarkable story - one which involves so many of the world's great leaders and civilisations, from the influential Persian kings to Alexander the Great, from the White Huns to Genghis Khan, not to mention the Ancient Greeks and countless tribes of nomads and barbarians. In addition, Docherty paints an illuminating picture of mountain warriors and religious visionaries, artists, poets and scientists as well as describing how around the Pass emerged three of the great world religions - Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam. Furthermore, he depicts its more modern significance as a lawless region of gunsmiths, drug markets and as a terrorist hideout. And through his own travels in this true frontier region and the continuing presence of US and British troops in Afghanistan, he brings the story into the twenty-first century.