Kohat Cantonment
Kohat was a town and district of British India, in the Peshawar division of the North-West Frontier Province. The town is 37m. south of Peshawar by the Kohat Pass, along which a military road was opened in 1901. The population in 1901 was 30,762, including 12,670 in the cantonment, which is garrisoned by artillery, cavalry and infantry. In the Tirah campaign of 1897-98 Kohat was the starting-point of Sir William Lockhart's expedition against the Orakzais and Afridis. It is the military base for the southern Afridi frontier as Peshawar is for the northern frontier of the same tribe, and it lies in the heart of the Pathan country.
Under the British Raj Kohat District was bounded E. by Rawal Pindi, with the Indus between; N. by Peshawar and the Afreedee hills; N. W. by the Orukzai country; W. by the Zaimookht hills, Kooram river, and Wazeeree hills ; and S. by Bannoo. Area, 2838 sq. m. Population, 181,540 [1882]. This Trans-Indus district consists of barren hills rich with rock-salt, and with unfrequent patches of cultivation. The hills in the E. or Khattak country are divided N. and S. by the Teri Toi river, which rises in Upper Meeranzai and flows E. to the Indus, 12 m. N. of Makhad; N. the Kohat Toi flows parallel with it. In the W. the Meeranzai valley is more fertile. The frontier hills, which run into the Safed Koh, rise into two peaks, Dupa Seer (8260 ft.) and Mazeo Garh (7940 ft.). The "Waziri Hills, to S., run in between the Kohat and Bannoo districts, and do not rise above 4000 ft. The Afridi Hills, between the Kohat and Peshawar districts, are crossed by two principal passes connecting the two districts, the Jawaki and Kohat Passes.
It consists chiefly of a bare and intricate mountain region east of the Indus, deeply scored with river valleys and ravines, but enclosing a few scattered patches of cultivated lowland. The eastern or Khattak country especially comprises a perfect labyrinth of ranges, which fall, however, into two principal groups, to the north and south of the Teri Toi river. The Miranzai valley, in the extreme west, appears by comparison a rich and fertile tract. In its small but carefully tilled glens, the plane, palm, fig and many orchard trees flourish luxuriantly; while a brushwood of wild olive, mimosa and other thorny bushes clothes the rugged ravines upon the upper slopes. Occasional grassy glades upon their sides form favourite pasture grounds for the Waziri tribes. The Teri Toi, rising on the eastern limit of Upper Miranzai, runs due eastward to the Indus, which it joins 12 m. N. of Makhad, dividing the district into two main portions. The drainage from the northern half flows southward into the Teri Toi itself, and northward into the parallel stream of the Kohat Toi. That of the southern tract falls northwards also into the Teri Toi, and southwards towards the Kurram and the Indus. The frontier mountains, continuations of the Safed Koh system, attain in places a considerable elevation, the two principal peaks, Dupa Sir and Mazi Garh, just beyond the British frontier, being 8260 and 7940 ft. above the sea respectively. The Waziri hills, on the south, extend like a wedge between the boundaries of Bannu and Kohat, with a general elevation of less than 4000 ft.
The Kohat pass or guli was kept open by British influence since 1849, a mounted guard being maintained on the crest or kothal; here Sir 0. Napier led a punitive expedition. On the Peshawar side Fort Mackeson commands the mouth of the Kohat Pass, and is connected with a post near the mouth of the Jawaki pass. The salt mines lie along either side of the Teri Toi in bluish-gray rock, quarried at intervals of 40 m. The vein, one of the largest in the world at that time, is a quarter of a mile wide, 1000 ft. thick, and sometimes rises in hills of 200 ft. The five mines worked were at Jatta, the headquarters, and Malgin, 9 m. E., both on N. bank of Teri Toi; and on the S. side Narri, 31 m. S.W. of Malgin, Bahadoor Khel, and Kharrak.
The Kohat salt is generally grey in colour, and is thus easily Kohat distinguished from that raised in the Salt Range, where the rock-salt. prevailing colour is pink or light-red. The masses of rock-salt exposed in the Kohat area are practically inexhaustible. In the anticline at Bahadur Khel, where the salt is exposed at the base of the Tertiary system of rocks, the beds of salt can be traced for a distance of about 8 miles, with an exposed thickness of over 1,000 feet.
There are petroleum springs at Panoba, 23 m. E. of Kohat, and sulphur in N". range. Kohat (18,200), chief town, cantonment, and fort, near N. bank of Kohat Toi, 2 m. from S. base of Afreedee hills, 37 m. S. of Peshawar. Hangu was the capital of the Upper Bangash tribe of Pathans, and Teri of the Khattaks.
