tourism: Mukeshpuri

Friday, 15 July 2011

Mukeshpuri

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Mukeshpuri mountain and the Nathiagali Hills, in Ayubia National Park.

The top of Mukeshpuri peak.

Mukeshpuri or Moshpuri is a 2,800 metres (9,200 ft) high mountain in the Nathiagali Hills, in the Abbottabad District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northern Pakistan. It is 90 kilometres (56 mi) north of Islamabad, just above Dunga Gali in the Nathiagali area of Ayubia National Park. Much of it the mountain is covered with Western Himalayan subalpine conifer forests.

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[edit] Etymology

The name Mukeshpuri is derived from the Sanskrit words: Moksha (liberation) and Puri (city). Mukeshpuri has a special of significance for the Hindus because of the Legends relating it to the Pandavas of the Mahabharata.
There are the five Pandavas, the heroes of the Mahabharata, who are favourite objects of worship in the east and sometimes addressed as the Panj Pir (five saints). Many are the legends current about these heroes and they are localised at quite a number of places. The Hill of Mokshpuri's name means 'the hill of salvation' and on its summit is a Panduan da Sthan, or place of the Pandavas.^[1]

[edit] The Peak

The route from Nathiagali on western side of mountain is a steady and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) long climb. The mountain also has a route on the Dunga Gali side, with a steeper slop. There is a bird sanctuary on this side created with the help of the European Union.
From the top of Mukeshpuri peak, on the eastern edge of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the following areas can be seen: — Circle Bakote, Jhelum River, the Bagh District of Azad Kashmir, in the south the city of Murree and the Murree Tehsil, as well as Islamabad.