historical region in what is now northwestern Pakistan corresponding to the Vale of Peshawar and having extensions into the lower valleys of the Kabul and Swat rivers. A trade crossroad and cultural meeting place between India, Central Asia, and the Middle East in ancient times, Gandhara was subject to Achaemenian Persia in the sixth and fifth centuries BC and was conquered by Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC. Thereafter it was ruled by the Maurya dynasty of India, under whom it became a centre for the spread of Buddhism to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Successively ruled by Indo-Greeks, Shakos, Parthians, Kushanas, and after its conquest by Mahmud of Ghazni in the eleventh century AD, Gandhara was held by various Muslim dynasties.Gandhara's capital was the famous city of Taxila, which along with the city of Peshawar, was an important cultural and educational centre. From the first century BC to the sixth-seventh century AD, Gandhara was the home of a distinctive art style that was a mixture of Indian Buddhist and Greco-Roman influences.