About 8 km from Mingora on the road to Malakand, is the town of Udegram which Alexander the Great captured in 327 BC. This is the site of the ancient town of Ora. Udegram was a fairly large town of the ruins which, encircled by huge walls, climb along the slopes of the mountains towering above the valley.
On the super of the mountain there existed a castle which, as tradition goes was destroyed by Mahmood of Ghazni in the 11th century. The remains of an 11th century mosque built by Sultan Mahmood Ghazni are located near Udegram along the hillside. The mosque is the third oldest mosque in Pakistan after those of Banbhore and Mansurah. Up the hillside is the site of Raja Gira’s castle. Both the sites were excavated by the Italian Archaeological Mission between 1956 and 1999.
