Peshawar (Urdu: پشاور; Pashto: پښور) literally means City on the Frontier in Persian and is known as Pekhawar in Pashto. It is the provincial capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province as well as the capital of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The "official" population is said to be around 3,000,000 however, locals say the number is beyond that saying as much as 5 to 6 million, due to the huge influx of Afghan refugees during the Soviet invasion, and later on during the US strikes against Afghanistan in 2001/2002.

The city is located on the edge of the Khyber Pass, Peshawar is the commercial, economic, political and cultural capital of the Pakistani frontier and, particularly, of the Pashtuns. In ancient times the city was known as Purushapura when it was officially founded by the Kushans. For much of its history, it was one of the main trading centres on the ancient Silk Road and was a major crossroads for various cultures between the subcontinent and Central Asia.