Photograph of troops from the Peshawar Valley Field Force advancing through the Khyber Pass, using a bridge built by Colonel Mackeson during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42). Men wearing turbans are sitting along the inside of the bridge to the right. A small group of men followed by a long train of camels are descending from the hillside to the right onto the bridge. There are rocky mountainsides to either side and a lone man stands in the valley to the right. The photographer John Burke travelled with the Peshawar Valley Field Force during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80), one of a series of conflicts between Britain and Russia over control of Afghanistan. His images from the war capture landscapes, key strategic sites and soldiers involved in the conflict.
From the collection of King Edward VII when Prince of Wales
