Geography and physical features

Boundaries:

The district is spread over an area of 1097 sq km or 546 sq miles. It is surrounded on the north by Orakzai Agency, on the east and south east by Kohat district, on the south by Karak district, on the south west by tribal areas adjoining Kurram Agency, North Waziristan Agency and F.R Bannu and on the north west by Kurram Agency.³ Hangu district shares most of its boundary with tribal territory whereby parts of the district like, Zergeri, Samana, Shahu Khel, Lodi Khel, Wach Bazar and Tora Wari have over the years practically become tribal areas and thus makes it geographically and strategically very important.

Location:

District Hangu starts from Khwaja-Khizar (Jozara) to Toot-Kasa (Thall), a village on the eastern border of Kurram Agency and covers a distance of about 96 km. It has two tehsils Hangu and Thall, a town Doaba, 17 Union Councils, two Municipal Committees (Hangu & Thall) and one town committee (Doaba).

Hangu is the head quarter of the district 39 km away from Kohat and 102 km from Peshawar .The approximate elevation of the district is 2900 feet or about 900 to 1400 meters above the sea level.⁴

Physical features:

The valley is divided into lower or kuz Miranzai and Upper or Bar Miranzai. When a traveler enters Hangu from the Kohat side, he finds the area as a narrow strip surrounded by mountains on both sides. Here the valley alternately contracts and widens, sometimes turning to a mere narrow valley, at other times spreading out into stretches of rich cultivation a mile or more across. The broader parts of the valley are often broken by out crops of low hills, running parallel with its general direction divide it into two parts for a short distance and the two branches re-unite a little further on. This part of the valley is called lower or kuz Miranzai. ⁵

Above Hangu while going towards Thall, the valley again opens and expands. This part of the valley or Upper Miranzai occupies the western parts and is more open section of the area. It begins at the lower part and divides itself near the village of Kahi about 12 miles west of Hangu and stretches almost to Thall on the Kurram River.⁶

No particular river exists in this district. The river Kurram separates the western boundary of the district from the Kurram Agency. The main source for the irrigation of the upper Miranzai is the Ishkali stream, which falls into the Kurram River. But this stream drains only the Zaimusht country. Some land near Thall is irrigated from the Kurram River. Due to this shortage of water, chief portion of the cultivated land is barani (rainy). In case of lower Miranzai, streams called Kohat Toi and Hangu Toi are the major sources for watering this area. The Hangu toi originates in the hills north of Kahi while the Kohat toi flows from north-west Samana hills towards east of the district. Both these streams combine at village Raisan and enter Kohat district.⁷

In the light of this knowledge, it is clear that the upper Miranzai valley of Hangu is by and large an open treeless, un-irrigated tract and the cultivation is nearly all dependant on rain. Some water wells exist which irrigate a small part of this land.  However, the amount of water gradually increases when one approaches to Hangu. Below Hangu character of the country changes, the amount of water accelerates, springs and streams are more numerous and major part of the land is irrigated and is richly cultivated.⁸

About the Hangu valley, Oliver in his book “Across The Border” describes as “The Miranzai valley, perhaps the most beautiful part of the Kohat district, has been arbitrarily divided into upper and lower parts, through the river which runs east, down the latter, is feeder of the Kohat toi or stream, and goes thence to the Indus, while the Ishkali, which runs west along the upper, is a branch of the Kurram. Both upper and lower Miranzai, equally with the Kurram, lay along the base of the great Safed Koh range, the white peaks of which tower everything else, a gigantic barrier between this and the still more famous Khyber route to Kabul. It is a land of Mountains, small and great, of rocks and stones. The rivers that rush down the steep slopes are at one time in dangerous torrents, at others yielding with difficulty a little water from the holes dug in their beds, with small and circumscribed, but well-cultivated valleys, where grain and fruit flourish abundantly, varied with ravine wastes, growing little beyond the dwarf palm which affords materials for one of the few staple industries of the country. These, again, are interspersed by grassy tracts, on which are pastured abnormally small cattle and exceptionally fat-tailed sheep”. ⁹