Swat Valley

Swat was the heartland of Gandharan Buddhism and its river valley carries hundreds of stupas and rock carvings, the Butkara stupa at Mingora among the oldest anywhere. It is also the valley Pakistanis call their Switzerland, green and terraced with the river running through it. Malam Jabba on the ridge is the country's main ski resort. Upstream past Bahrain the road climbs to Kalam and on to the Ushu meadows and Mahodand Lake, which is as far as vehicles get. The Swat Museum holds what the excavations found. The valley was a princely state under its own wali until 1969.