Landi Kotal or Landikotal is a town of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. It is located at 34°6'4N 71°8'44E and lies on the Khyber Pass in the Khyber Agency. At 1,072 metres above sea level it is the highest point on the Khyber Pass and is the route across the mountains to the city of Peshawar. Landi Kotal is a tourist destination which is accessible by train (called the Khyber train safari) or road from elsewhere in Pakistan, or by road from the Afghanistan border just five kilometres to the west. Landi Kotal is the main shopping centre for both the Shinwari and Afridi tribes.
History
Landi Kotal was the westernmost part of the Khyber held by the British during their rule of the subcontinent. In 1897 the Afridis attacked Landi Kotal and other posts in the Khyber Pass. Although the Khyber Rifles put up a stiff defence, Landi Kotal was overrun, as the Rifles lacked water. The British counter-attacked with a force of 34,500 men under Sir William Lockhart, defeating the Afridis, although the Afridis took the town again during the second Anglo-Afghan War.
The fort during the period of British rule was of the ordinary type, consisting of a keep and an outer fort with accommodation for 5 British officers and 500 native officers and men. From 1899, like the other posts in the Khyber, it had been garrisoned by the Khyber Rifles, an irregular corps of militia recruited from the tribes of the Khyber Agency. In 1925 the heavily engineered Khyber Pass Railway was opened linking Jamrud to Landi Kotal.
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