Takht-e-Sulaiman (, Balochi: تخت ء سلیمان; "Throne of Solomon") is a peak of the Sulaiman Mountains, located near the town of Darazinda in the Dera Ismail Khan Subdivision of

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# ...

. It is close to Dera Ismail Khan Subdivision's borders with both

South Waziristan South Mahsud Waziristan District () was a Districts of Pakistan, district in the Dera Ismail Khan Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, before splitting into the Lower South Waziristan District and the Upper South Waziristan D ...

and Zhob, Balochistan. At , it is the highest peak in Dera Ismail Khan District and the greater Shirani region.

Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...

named Takht-e-Sulaiman as ''Kōh-e Sulaymān'', "Mount of Solomon".

Legends

A legend, recorded by the medieval Maghrebi explorer

, has it that Prophet

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

climbed this mountain and looked out over the land of Hindustan, which was then ''"covered with darkness"''. After staying on the peak, he turned back without descending into this new frontier, and left only the mountain which is named after him. Another legend says that

Qais Abdur Rashid Qais Abdur Rashīd or Qais Abdul Rasheed () is said to be, in post-Islamic lore, the legendary founding father of the Pashtuns. It is believed that the conception of such a figure was promoted to bring harmony between religious and ethnic identit ...

, said to be the legendary ancestor of the Pashtun people, is buried on top of Takht-e-Sulaiman, which gives the peak the local

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 ...

name of ''Da Kasī Ghar'' (د کسي غر, "Mountain of Qais"). Syed Muhammad Hamza Gesudaraz I is buried on the top of Takht-e-Sulaiman with his family and descendants. The burial is called “Meeran”.

Tourism and Economy

Takht-e-Sulaiman is surrounded by olive groves and pine-nut (chalghoza) forests, and hosts wild animals like markhors, wolves, rabbits, eagles and partridges. Royalty from the Gulf Arab states are known to hunt precious birds in the region.

Legends

Tourism and Economy

References

Further reading