Saidū Sharīf (

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

: ) is the capital of the

Swat district Swat District (), also known as the Swat Valley, is a Districts of Pakistan, district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Known for its stunning natural beauty, the district is a popular tourist destination. With a populati ...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ; , ; abbr. KP or KPK), formerly known as the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Northern Pakistan, northwestern region of the country, Khyber ...

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# ...

. The city also serves as the capital of the Malakand Division. It was named after Saidu Baba, a prominent leader of the former state of Swat. Saidu Sharif is the hub of several official buildings, and archeological sites such as the Swat Museum, the mausoleum of Saidu Baba, Royal residential palace of the former Wali-e-Swat, and the archaeological remains of the Butkara Buddhist Stupa.

Etymology

The older name of Saidu Sharif was ''Baligram''. In 1835, Akhund of Swat, a Sufi saint commonly known as ''Saidu Baba'', settled here, renaming the city to Saidu Sharif.

Climate

Saidu Sharif has a

hot-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(''Csa'') under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

. The average annual temperature in Saidu Sharif is 19.3 °C, while the annual precipitation average is 894 mm. November is the driest month with 22 mm of precipitation, while August is the wettest one with average precipitation of 134 mm. June is the hottest month of the year with an average temperature of 29.2 °C while January is the coldest one with an average temperature of 7.5 °C.

Education

The largest college in the district is P.G Jahanzeb College which was built in 1952. It offers intermediate studies and BSc and MSc degrees to both male and female students. Saidu Medical College is another college which was built here in 1998. This college ranks third in the government medical colleges in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Moreover, there are numerous schools in Saidu Sharif. One of them is the Govt: Wadudia High School .On 7 July 2010, the first university of the district was established in this area.

Archeological sites

One of the most important Buddhist relics in Swat is near the museum. The stupa, which dates from the second century BC, was possibly built by the

Mauryan The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia with its power base in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The primary sourc ...

emperor

Ashoka Ashoka, also known as Asoka or Aśoka ( ; , ; – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was List of Mauryan emperors, Emperor of Magadha from until #Death, his death in 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynast ...

to house some of the ashes of the Buddha. In subsequent centuries, it was enlarged five times by encasing the existing structure in a new shell. Italian excavators working in 1955, exposed the successive layers of the stupa, each layer illustrating a stage in the evolution of building techniques.

Swat Museum

Swat Museum is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

located on the road connecting Mingora and Saidu Sharif. The museum contains

Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

n statuettes and friezes depicting the lives of the Buddha along with seals, small

reliquaries A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported or actual physic ...

and other treasures, mostly from Butkara No 1 and Odigram. Additionally, there are pre-Buddhist artefacts, and an ethnographic gallery with traditional carved Swati furniture, jewelry and embroideries. A recent discovery, includes a stone ‘board’ game found at the Buddhist Complex of Amluk Dara, of a sort still played in the valley today.

Administrative divisions

Saidu Sharif is an administrative unit, known as union council or Ward in tehsil Babuzai, of the Swat district. According to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act 2013 Swat District has 214 Wards: 170 Village Councils and 44 Neighbourhood Councils. Saidu Sharif is Territorial ''Ward'', which is further divided into three ''Neighbourhood Councils'': # Saidu Sharif i (''Neighbourhood Council'') # Saidu Sharif ii (''Neighbourhood Council'') # Saidu Sharif iii (''Neighbourhood Council'')

References

{{Authority control * Populated places in Swat District Cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa