The present main hall of the Peshawar Museum was built in 1906-07 in the memory of Queen Victoria at the cost of Rs. 60000, out of which Rs. 45000 were donated by the public of NWFP and Rs. 15000 by the Director General of Archaeology, India. After completion of the building, the museum was set up in November 1907 to house the Gandharan Sculptures excavated from the major Gandharan sites of Shah-Ji-Ki-Dheri Peshawar, Sahr-i-Bahlol,Takht Bahi in the Mardan District and later from Jamal Garhi and other Gandharan sites excavated by British scholars. The two storey building, an amalgamation of the British and Mughal architectures, originally consisted of a main hall and two side aisles on the ground and first floor, surmounted by four cupolas and small pinnacles on all the corners. On the eastern and western side of the building, two halls were added in similar fashion in 1969-70 (one on each side). 1n1974-75, the second storey was added to these side halls.

A new block under the project "Extension of Peshawar Museum ", was approved in the year 2002 at a cost of Rs.33.11 million. It has two components, {a} extension of the museum for constructing an Islamic Block with two galleries, a conservation laboratory, two halls for the reserve collection, offices of the Provincial Directorate and a Cafeteria and [b] complete remodeling of the existing building by replacing the show cases, lighting, labeling, in all the galleries of the existing main building, along with

rearmament of the floor and ceiling etc. This new Islamic Block, located behind the main building, is now complete and accommodate the directorate offices, two exhibition halls and store for Gandharan reserve collection