Attock

Attock, a town and fort of the Punjab, on the left or east bank of the Indus. Attock stands below the fort, a parallelogram of 800 yards by 400, established by the Emperor Akbar in 1581, to defend the passage of the river, but it is no longer a position of strength. The great railway-bridge across the Indus here was opened in 1883. It has five arches 130 feet high, and renders continuous the railway connection between Calcutta and Peshawur (1600 miles). The situation of Attock is important, whether in a commercial or in a military view. It is at the head of the steamboat navigation of the Indus, being 940 miles from its mouth; while, about 2 miles above it, the Cabul River, the only considerable affluent of the Indus from the west, is practicable for vessels of 40 or 50 tons for a distance of 50 miles. The valley, again, of this last-mentioned stream, presenting, as it does, the best approach to the east and south from Central Asia, has been the route of nearly all but the maritime invaders of India from the days of Alexander the Great downwards. Taxila, where the Macedonians crossed the Indus, has been identified with Attock. Pop. 4000.