Takht-e-Sulaiman (, Balochi: تخت ء سلیمان; "Throne of Solomon") is a peak of the

Sulaiman Mountains The Sulaiman Mountains, also known as Kōh-e Sulaymān, Kasē Ghrūna Da Suleiman Ghruna (Pashto: د كسې غرونه ، د سلیمان غرونه; "Mountains of Qaes/Kasi and Solomon") ( Balochi:; "Mountains of Solomon") are a north–south ex ...

, located near the town of

Darazinda Drazanda (also spelled Darazinda or Drazinda) is a main village or small town in Dera Ismail Khan District of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The population is 8,842, according to the 2017 Census of Pakistan. The Takht-e-Sulaiman (Solomo ...

in the

Dera Ismail Khan Subdivision Drazanda Tehsil is an administrative subdivision (tehsil) of Dera Ismail Khan District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It borders South Waziristan to the north, Dera Ghazi Khan and Musa Khel to the south and Zhob to the west. The c ...

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 Zhob (; ), formerly known as Fort Sandeman is a city and district headquarters of the Zhob District in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Zhob is located on the banks of the Zhob river. It lies 337 kilometres away from Quetta, the capital ...

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region o ...

. At , it is the highest peak in

Dera Ismail Khan District Dera Ismail Khan District (Urdu and , ), often abbreviated as D.I. Khan is a district in the Dera Ismail Khan division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The capital of the district is the town of Dera Ismail Khan. The district has ...

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 Maghrebi Arabic, often known as ''ad-Dārija'' to differentiate it from Literary Arabic, is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb. It includes the Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Libyan, Hassaniya and Saharan Arabic di ...

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 ''Hindūstān'' ( English: /ˈhɪndustæn/ or /ˈhɪndustɑn/, ; ) was a historical region, polity, and a name for India, historically used simultaneously for northern Indian subcontinent and the entire subcontinent, used in the modern day ...

, 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 Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...

, 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