This country has been thus described by Oliver in his book _Across the Border_: “The Miranzai Valley, perhaps the pleasantest part of the Kohat district, has been arbitrarily divided into an Upper and a Lower, though the river which runs east, down the latter, is a 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, lie along the base of the great Safed Koh Range, the white peaks of which tower over 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 of stones. The rivers that rush down the steep slopes are at one time 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 raviney wastes, growing little beyond the dwarf palm which affords materials for one of the few staple industries the country possesses. These, again, are interspersed by grassy tracts, on which are pastured abnormally small cattle and exceptionally fat-tailed sheep.” The Miranzai Valley is about forty miles in length, and its width varies from three to seven miles; it extends from Thal to Raisan—where the Khanki River breaks through the hills into the valley—and from the Zaimukht and Orakzai hills to those of the Khattaks.
Up to the time of the second Afghan war the Kurram Valley was ruled by the Afghans, but it came under our influence during the campaign, and was finally occupied by us in the autumn of 1893. The country is now administered by the Indian Government, and is ruled by a political officer, the valley being to all intents and purposes British territory.
“Once past Thal,” says Oliver, “and the banks of the Kurram River reached—more or less all along are cornfields and fruit gardens, mulberry groves and fertile glades, passing up to ridges crested by oak and olive, yew trees and pines; the range behind again culminating in the snow-capped peak of Sika Ram, which rises over 15,000 feet high. Some parts of the valley have the reputation of being unhealthy, for the same reason as Bannu, but there are few more fertile spots along the Afghan Border than the Kurram.” The valley is about sixty miles long and in some parts not more than ten miles broad; it is bounded on the west by Afghanistan, on the east by the country of the Chamkannis, Zaimukhts and Orakzais, on the south by Waziristan, while on the north Kurram is separated from the country of the Shinwaris by the Safed Koh Range. “Dark pine forests cover the lower ranges, and naked cliffs and snowy peaks rise high above them. The chain is so situated that the rays of the setting sun fall full upon it, and the effect on a chill winter evening, when the pale snows flush scarlet and crimson, while darkness is already gathering in the valley below, is very fine.”