( Written By Edward Lear 1862. Akhund of was the king of before English He was a Sufi who led his nation. Later after the English conquest, English made His Son Jehanzeb the Wali (Owner) of Swat and in 1969 Swat came in full control of the Government of Pakistan. Swat is known as the Switzerland of . The river Swat is a clear water river starting from the Ushu rage of mountains to the spread of the valley of Swat. It is one of the greenest valleys of Northern Pakistan and is well connected to the rest of Pakistan. There are regular flights from Islamabad to Swat and back.

One can also get here either from Peshawar (160 KMs) or Islamabad. (250 KMs) The valley of Swat is located in the middle of foothills of Hindukush mountain range. The main town of the valley is and . Swat is a place for leisure Lover, Hikers, and archeologist.

There are many comfortable hotels where one can stay a while to relax. In Kalam upper Swat there are some very pleasant walks since weather is pretty pleasant one can easily walk over the hills for hours and enjoy the unspoiled nature. The Swat is garden of Ashoka and was a prosperous land in the Buddhist times (2nd BC to 5 AD) There are at least over 100 archeological sites in the valley less than 10% of the area excavated. One can explore some of those sites in a half day tour of Swat. History of Swat Written by Jamal Panhwar Alexander was in a hurry when he came to Swat. He was unable to meet Local people in Swat valley. Even today people argue that if he had time to relax at the bank of Swat River and feel the cool breeze coming from the snow-capped Ushu mountain and to listen to the echo of the flutes coming from the mountain of the valley he would never have left this heaven on earth and today his grave would have been here. 300 years later Kanishka did feel the romance of this valley and left the busy city of Peshawar carrying his capital on horses and came to Swat Valley he made Swat the capital of his Gandhara kingdom and remained here.

This made Swat a place for Buddhism where Buddhism flourished and reached its height. The numerous articles found from different archeological sites are the proof of a prosperous and joyful era of this valley. In the 6th century AD white Huns came and destroyed every site of the Buddhism and wounded and killed the loving people of the valley, After the attack of White Huns Hyun Sang came for pilgrimage of this valley and sadly wrote that most of 1400 monasteries of Swat are either burned or abandoned and have been ruined, Most of the monks have left or are dead, those who remain do talk about Buddhism but they themselves don't know the meaning of the teachings of Buddha.

Huan Sang wrote this account of the valley and took all the written material on 40 horses to China, Although Huan Sang wrote this 1500 years ago it seems he is talking about what is happening now in this beautiful heaven on earth. Even After the brutal invasion of Whiten Huns Swat still remained a pilgrimage place for Buddhist was ruled and inhabited by Buddhists until Sultan Mehmood of Ghazni invaded Swat and last Buddhist Raja Geera was overthrown. At the end of 15th century this valley was invaded by the Afghan Yousafzais, they pushed the inhabitants of this valley towards the Indus valley thus a new region and nation emerged by the name of Hazara which is still the name of the region and the name of the people living near the confluence of river Indus and Kabul. The newcomer Yousufzais was not as bad as White Huns they developed Military riles and their King Sardar Sheikh Milli even wrote poetry which was known as the Conquest of Swat.

Bayazid Ansari wrote hist Biography and wrote books like Khairul Bayan which was a book about the law's distribution of land and rules of division. Akhund Zada Daweza wrote "Tazkerah" and "Makhzan" all these were marked as the base of Pushto literature. These two books are considered as the masterpieces of Persian and Pushto literature of those days. Akhund Darweza Baba held many religious discussions with Bayazid Ansari.

In 1050 AD great poet of Pushto Khushal Khan Khattak came to Swat. During his stay in Swat, he wrote Swat Nama, in verse. It was a great contribution to Pushto literature in Swat. Swat Nama, contains the geographical, cultural, political and historical aspects of the Swat of those days.

After Moghuls in the middle of the 19th century two local rulers Akbar Shah & Mubarak Sha ruled Swat they both tried to rule according to the religion and the culture but as English took over their rule come to an end. From 1863 to 1915 this region was ruled by the neighboring state of Dir than one day the tribes' men of Swat held a Jirga in Kabal and they chose Mian Gulshan Zada Abdul Wudood as the Wali of Swat.

Mian Gul Wudood was crowned in 1916 and he was popularly called as Bacha Saheb of Swat. Bacha Saheb was a progressive ruler British accepted his kingdom as semiautonomous Kingdom, he was entitled to a salute of 15 Guns He made Pushto the official language replacing Persian for the first time lands were allotted to the people according to inheritance which generated a new era of Khans (Land Lords) who got along well with the king but wanted to keep the poor and farmers underdeveloped. Mian Gul Bacha Saheb also got a constitution made up of religious and cultural teaching and named it "Fatavi Wudidia".