Inside Peshawar Museum, where empires converge and centuries quietly speak

PESHAWAR: Rising in red brick and white stone in the heart of Peshawar Cantonment in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the Peshawar Museum stands opposite the Governor House, its domes and arches holding firm against the dust, traffic and urgency of a modern city.

To step inside is to step out of time.

“This place was never meant to be silent,” said a senior museum official, Dr. Saqib Raza, standing beneath the soaring ceiling of the main hall. “It was built to be seen, heard and remembered.”

Originally named the Victoria Memorial Hall, the structure was completed in 1907 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Its architecture blends British colonial design with Mughal sensibilities, wide corridors, high ceilings, arched doorways and cupolas that draw the eye upward.

For international visitors, the building itself serves as an introduction to Peshawar’s historical role as a gateway between Central Asia and South Asia.

The first sensation upon entering is space. The vast central hall, once a colonial-era ballroom, opens with a restrained grandeur. The original polished wooden floor remains intact, reflecting the white arches above. The room absorbs sound, creating a hush that feels almost ceremonial.

“You can feel the weight of history under your feet,” said a local historian visiting with students. “These floors have seen empire, independence and everything in between.”

The museum is globally renowned for its Gandhara collection, considered one of the largest and most significant in the world. The sculptures, carved nearly two millennia ago, narrate the life of the Buddha in stone, from scenes before his birth to his final moments. Excavated from ancient sites such as Takht-i-Bahi and Sahri Bahlol in what is now KP province, the artworks reveal a rare fusion of Greek and South Asian artistic traditions.

“This is where civilizations met and learned to speak each other’s visual language,” a curator explained, gesturing toward a serene stone figure draped in Greco-Roman folds.

But the museum’s story does not end with Buddhism.

In the Ethnological Gallery, the living cultures of the region take center stage. Among the most striking objects are wooden effigies of the Kalash people, dating back nearly 3,000 years, alongside musical instruments, jewelry and ceremonial dress from Chitral and surrounding valleys.

“These are not relics of a dead culture,” the curator said. “They represent communities that are still here.”

The Islamic Gallery offers another turn in the region’s layered history. Handwritten Qurans from the 16th and 17th centuries are displayed alongside Persian manuscripts nearly a thousand years old. Administrative records trace the mechanics of empire, including an original office order bearing the seal of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.

Nearby, the Historical and Painting Gallery shifts the focus again, this time to colonial and post-colonial power. Portraits of King George V and Queen Mary, once displayed during formal dances in the hall, hang near images of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. An extensive coin collection spans centuries, with some pieces dating back to the 6th century BCE.

“For researchers, this museum is a map of continuity,” said a visiting academic. “You see how power, faith and culture overlap rather than replace one another.”

Today, the Peshawar Museum attracts scholars, artists and travelers from around the world. Yet it remains deeply rooted in its local context, standing between the ordered avenues of the cantonment and the dense, historic streets of Peshawar’s old city.

“This museum doesn’t just preserve history,” the official said quietly. “It reminds us that this region has always been connected to the wider world.”

In a city often defined by headlines of conflict and politics, the Peshawar Museum offers a different narrative. One of endurance, exchange and shared human heritage, told not in words alone, but in stone, wood and silence.