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The road likely was established during the Mauryan Empire's reign, 322 to 185 BCE, in order to connect the empire's mountain frontier to the Ganges Delta.
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Serious road building was begun by the ruler Chandragupta Maurya only a couple of centuries after the Buddha died in 483 B.C.
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Even much before this road was built, the route from Afghanistan to this part of the then India, now Pakistan was frequented by all invaders, travellers, generals and their armies. One of them was Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king who conquered the Punjab in 326.
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Sher Shah Suri (who mapped the route in its entirety) ruled Northern India during the 16th Century and founded the short-lived Suri dynasty.
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In the 1500s, the road was revived and extended by Sher Shah Suri, a Pashtun emperor who served in the military under Babur, founder of the Mughal Dynasty, and then wrested control of northern India from Humayan, Babur's son.
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During the 19th Century the Mughals were displaced in the North West by the Sikh Empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his military strongholds at Amritsar, Lahore, Attock and Peshawar which all lay on the Grand Trunk Road.
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Those who lived along the Grand Trunk Road had contact with the British. Mass migration from these regions coincided with demand for labour in Britain after World War II
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This grand road has seen rise and fall of many empires and creation of new countries. With Independence and Partition in 1947, it became a two-way escape route for 15 million refugees caught between Indian and Pakistan.
