Maidan, or Tirah Maidan, is a remote valley located in the
Tirah
Tirah, also spelled Terah (), also called the Tirah Valley (), is a mountainous region located in the Orakzai District and the southern part of the Khyber District, positioned between the Khyber Pass and the Khanki Valley in Pakistan. Due to ...
region in
Khyber Agency,
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
.
Description
Maidan lies at an elevation of about 7,400 ft (2,300 m), close under the snow-bound
Spin Ghar mountain range, which separates it from the
Shinwar area of
Nangarhar,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
. It is drained by a narrow outlet which joins the
Bara River.
[T H Holdich. . ''Khyber.ORG.'' Publishing Date: December 18, 2009.] Despite the sloping plateau, Tirah is highly cultivated by
terracing. There are
walnut
A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...
trees,
mulberry
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinat ...
and
apricot
An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''.
Usually an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...
, as well as wild
olive
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...
s and occasional
pomegranates
The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between tall. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, it is thought to have originat ...
, and
blue pine
''Pinus wallichiana'' is a pinophyta, coniferous evergreen tree native to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains, from eastern Afghanistan east across northern Pakistan and north west India to Yunnan in southwest China. It grows in mou ...
covers the summits. But on the whole, Maidan is sparsely wooded.
Afridis migrate to the pleasant heights of Maidan in summer from lower altitude areas like the
Bara Valley. The Saran Sar Pass at (8,650 ft) connects Maidan with the Bara Valley. The Tseri Kandao Pass (8,575 ft) connects Maidan with the Waran Valley to the east, and the Arhanga Pass (7,050 ft) connects Maidan with the Mastura Valley to the south. The Rajgul Valley lies to the northwest, between Maidan and the Spin Ghar mountain range.
References
{{coord missing, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber District
Valleys of Pakistan