Ranigat

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Buddhist Ruins of Ranigat
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Type Cultural
UNESCO region Asia-Pacific
Ranigat in the Buner District

The word Ranigat is the combination of two different languages ‘Rani’ and ‘gat’. ‘Rani’ is a Hindi word that means ‘Queen’ while ‘gat’ is a Pashto word which means a ‘huge rock’, so archaeological site of Ranigat, meaning "Queen's Rock".The remains of the valley, which owes its name to the huge standing rock on the top of the mountain that shoulders the ruins, can be seen from far off areas of the district. According to the archeologists, Ranigat, a developed state, remained the center of Buddhist art and culture for centuries. Ranigat, belonging to the period of first-sixth century AD and protected under the Antiquities Act 1975, has been a celebrated part of folklore – songs and stories of which still echo from the coffee-hued ruins, located in Totalai in the Buner District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.[1]

Site description

The site of Ranigat is situated on the top of a ridge, where the remains of the region's largest Buddhist monastic complex reside. Structures on the site include stupas, monasteries, shrines, drainage networks, and other buildings. Ranigat is a 2500-year-old Buddhist archaeological site belonging to the Gandhara civilization and is a good evidence of the Buddhist past of the area. The site can be reached by climbing the stairs constructed by the Japanese. The main attractions include; Stupas, monasteries, drainage systems and a big rock erected by the ancient people at some distance that they probably used to worship. The city was beautifully designed and stones from the local mountains have been extensively used. Ranigat is easily accessible through M1 or (Motorway) or N35. It is about 20 km away from Swabi and 100 km from Peshawar or Islamabad.[2] Under excavation by a joint UNESCO-Japanese team since the 1980s, the site has had issues related to vandalism.[3] The site is now under surveillance and is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. .[2]

World Heritage status

This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on January 30, 2004 in the Cultural category.[2]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ranigat, Buner.

UNESCO Report on Ranigat

Notes

  1. ↑ http://www.dawn.com/news/1125480
  2. 1 2 3 Archaeological Site of Ranigat - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  3. ↑ Ranigat: 2nd to 6th Century AD

References

Coordinates: 34°13′48″N 72°26′54″E / 34.23000°N 72.44833°E / 34.23000; 72.44833

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.