A Journey on the Grand Trunk Road
A Journey on the Grand Trunk Road
Cover of ‘From Landi Kotal to Wagah’
Salman Rashid’s new book pairs gorgeous photographs with little-known history in tribute to the grid that has long connected far-flung areas of Pakistan
The extraordinary
From Landi Kotal to Wagah (UNESCO and Sang-e-Meel, 2021) mixes in equal measure excellent photography and storytelling to merit a status above that of the average coffee-table book that is more frills than substance.
Its storyteller is Salman Rashid, Pakistan’s preeminent travel-writer, who is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. The traveler in him blends with the historian and ethnographer to tell a hitherto untold story of the Grand Trunk Road connecting Peshawar to Lahore. He has written steadily about Pakistan’s far-flung and little known areas for the past 40 years and has contributed to a knowledge of history that is free of the ideological accretions Pakistan is habituated to