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Landi Kotal

Military station, 1879–1947

Lanḍī Kōtalلنڈی کوتل

Today Landi Kotal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Same place, same name.

Key facts

Historical name
Landi Kotal
Type
Military station
Coordinates
34.1011° N, 71.1456° E(seed dataset)
Governance
Directly administered
Record confidence
Low confidence
Identifiers
Q1803018

Directly administered by the Governor-General of India, and therefore part of British India in the statutory sense of the Interpretation Act 1889, s.18.

Location

Pin placed at the coordinates recorded for this place. Colonial-era boundaries are not drawn.

Description

Fortified post at the summit of the Khyber Pass, the furthest British garrison on the road to the Afghan frontier.

Historical notes

Occupied during the Second Afghan War (1878-80) and permanently garrisoned with the Khyber Rifles; the Khyber Pass Railway reached it in 1925.

Administrative history

Administrative parenthood changed over time. Each row states the years it is recorded for, and the source it comes from.

Administrative units this place is recorded under, by year
YearsRelationUnitConfidence
from 1901Part ofNorth-West Frontier ProvinceChief Commissioner's Province · Directly administeredSnapshot from the 1901 census and the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31). End of the relationship not established; recorded as open rather than inferred.Low confidencesource
from 1901Part ofKhyber AgencyDistrict · Directly administeredSnapshot from the 1901 census and the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31). End of the relationship not established; recorded as open rather than inferred.Low confidencesource

Recorded names

Every documented spelling and transliteration held for this place. The historical name is canonical; modern names redirect to it.

Name variants recorded for this place
NameScriptTypeYears
Landi KotalLatinHistorical English
Lanḍī KōtalOther scriptAlternative spelling
LandikotalLatinAlternative spelling
LwargaiLatinAlternative spelling
لنڈی کوتلArabicIndigenous

Records and references

Imperial Gazetteer of India
Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908-31), Vol. 16 (16)
Census of India
Census of India, 1901, Vol. XVII (17): Punjab, its Feudatories and the North-West Frontier Province

Sources

  1. Encyclopedia· generalCC BY-SA

    Wikipedia: Landi Kotal, Wikimedia Foundation

    Wikipedia contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

  2. Database· identityCC0

    Wikidata (Q1803018), Wikimedia Foundation

    Wikidata, CC0 1.0

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

  3. Gazetteer· administrativeLicence unverified

    Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908–31), DSAL entry: Landi Kotal, University of Chicago / Digital South Asia Library

    Digital South Asia Library, University of Chicago — the 1908–31 text is public domain, but DSAL's digital presentation states no licence; link-out only

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

  4. Archive· descriptionPublic domain

    Internet Archive scan: in.gov.ignca.31019, Internet Archive

    Scanned volume of a pre-1929 publication (Imperial Gazetteer of India 1908–31 / Census of India 1901); public domain. Digitisation courtesy of the Internet Archive.

    Retrieved 2026-08-29

Sources tagged “Licence unverified” are linked to rather than reproduced. Scans and images are only displayed inline where the licence is confirmed permissive.