Khyber definition

Between Jalalabad and Peshawar is the Khyber pass.

The Khyber was not in ancient times the main route of advance from Kabul to Peshawar.

An ad j acent opening, the Khyber Pass, the Kurram Pass to the south of it, the Gomal Pass near Dera Ismail Khan, the Tochi Pass between the two last-named, and the famous Bolan Pass still farther south, furnish the gateways between India and Afghanistan.

This led to long negotiations, and ultimately to war, when the British forced the Khyber Pass in November 1878, and defeated the amir's forces on every occasion.

Strategically it is an important topographical feature, for it divides the basin of the Kabul river and the Khyber route from the valley of Kurram, leaving no practicable pass across its rugged crest to connect the two.