Takht-e-Sulaiman ( ps, تخت سليمان; "Throne of Solomon") is a peak of the

Sulaiman Mountains The Sulaiman Mountains, also known as Kōh-e Sulaymān ( Balochi/Urdu/ fa, ; "Mountains of Solomon") or Da Kasē Ghrūna ( ps, د كسې غرونه; "Mountains of Kasi"), are a north–south extension of the southern Hindu Kush mountain system i ...

, located near the town of

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

in the

Dera Ismail Khan Subdivision Dera Ismail Khan Subdivision formerly Frontier Region Dera Ismail Khan is a subdivision in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The region is named after Dera Ismail Khan District which lies to the east and also borders South Waziristan to ...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

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

South Waziristan South Waziristan District ( ps, سويلي وزیرستان ولسوالۍ, ur, ) was a district in Dera Ismail Khan Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before splitting in to Lower South Waziristan District and Upper South Waziristan District and ...

and

Zhob Zhob (; ) or Zhobak (), formerly known as Appozai or Fort Sandeman, is a city and district capital of Zhob District in Balochistan province of Pakistan. Zhob is located on the banks of Zhob River 337 km from Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. T ...

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

. At , it is the highest peak in Dera Ismail Khan District and the greater Shirani region. Ibn Battuta named Takht-e-Sulaiman as ''Kōh-e Sulaymān'', "Mount of Solomon".

Legends

A legend, recorded by the medieval

Maghrebi Maghrebi Arabic (, Western Arabic; as opposed to Eastern or Mashriqi Arabic) is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb region, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania. It includes Moroccan, Alge ...

explorer Ibn Battuta, has it that Prophet Solomon climbed this mountain and looked out over the land of

Hindustan ''Hindūstān'' ( , from '' Hindū'' and ''-stān''), also sometimes spelt as Hindōstān ( ''Indo-land''), along with its shortened form ''Hind'' (), is the Persian-language name for the Indian subcontinent that later became commonly used by ...

, 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, said to be the legendary ancestor of

Pashtun people Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

, 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. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

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