Jalālābād

Jalalabad lies in the warm Nangarhar valley on the Kabul River, between the mountains of eastern Afghanistan and the approaches to the Khyber Pass. The nearby Buddhist centre of Hadda was famed in antiquity for shrines associated with relics of the Buddha. Chinese pilgrims recorded the region's monasteries and sacred places during their journeys through Gandhara. Babur described the plants, animals and people of Nangarhar when he travelled from Kabul toward India in 1505, noting the contrast with Kabul's colder climate. Under the Mughals, Akbar developed Jalalabad on the route toward India. His son Jahangir laid out gardens at Nimla in 1610, and the governor Ali Mardan Khan built a masonry bridge over the Surkhrud during Shah Jahan's reign.