The legend of Koh-e-Chiltan

Overview of Mountain Chiltan

Koh-i-Chiltan is a stunning peak located in the mountain group of the Sulaiman Mountains, in Quetta, Balochistan. It is the third highest peak in Quetta and the fifth highest in Balochistan.

The name  Chiltan (or Chehel-Tan) is derived from Baluchi/Persian and means ‘forty bodies’.

The Legend of Koh-I–Chiltan:

Many years ago, a very poor couple, lived in the vicinity of the mountain. The couple was not blessed with any offspring.  As time passed the couple grew desperate for a child and started resorting to methods other than natural.  They sought advice of a Holy Man who preformed a ritual by casting forty pebbles into the wife’s lap while praying for the couple to give birth. With the passage of time the women gave birth to 40 babes. With an overwhelmingly large number of children to provide and take care of, the couple grew weary of the situation.

The husband decided to cold-heartedly leave 39 of their children on the Chehel Tan summit, while keep one off the spring with them. With the passage of time, guilt and remorse over took the wife and unknown to her husband she went to explore the mountain in hopes of collecting the bones of her children and burying them. However when she reached the mountain, she was surprised to see all the children living and playing gambol among the trees and rocks.

Overcome with joy she ran back to her dwelling and brought the fortieth baby and left it on the summit of the mountain for the night in hopes to allure back its brothers. However on returning in the morning she found that there was no one there. The spirits of her 39 children had taken their brother who was never seen again.

It is by the spirits of these forty babies that are said to haunt Chehel-Tan.