Ghandhara

In the sixth century BC this land became the Eastern most part of the Achaemenid empire and was a semi independent kingdom, with its capitals at Pushkalavati (near Peshawar) and Texila.

Whenever Alexander the great arrived during 327 B.C., he found Taxila as a flourishing Buddhist city of learning, which further expanded under the Mauryan Emperors, specially during the days of Ashoka the great.

The bactrian Greeks arrived in 185 BC followed by the Scythians (the Iranian nomads) from Central Asia in 75 BC, who were defected by the powerful parthians in about AD 20.

The Khushans from Central Asia overthrew Parthians, and by the 2nd century AD they were ruling from Eastern Iran to the Chinese frontier, and under the most famous Kushan King Kanishka Buddhist Art and culture flourished. After their decline, this Gandharan empire was invaded by white Huns, Sassanians Turks, and Hindu Shahis ruling until 1008 AD.