The cities besieged and captured by Alexander the Great are known as “Alexander’s Cities”. The new discoveries are expected to improve the tourism industry in northwest Pakistan. Authorities in northwest Pakistan are predicting a surge in tourism after the discovery of new structures in the ancient city of Bazira, which was occupied millennia ago by Alexander the Great.

The Italian Archaeological Mission to Pakistan has been excavating Bazira at Barikot in the central Swat Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province since the 1970s. Alexander the Great besieged and captured the city in 327 BC, and it is today. called “the city of Alexander”.

Since the conquest, various ancient civilizations have controlled Bazira including the Maurya Empire, the Kushans, the Hindu Shahis and the Ghaznavids.