Abstract: The northern Pakistan is the central area of the Gandhara culture in history, where a large number of Hinduist, Buddhist and Islamic cultural heritage sites are located. Based on multisource data such as historical sources, DEM data, and field survey, the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics and preservation of Hinduist, Buddhist, and Islamic cultural heritage sites have been studied by using spatial analysis methods of GIS, and the reasonable protection countermeasures have been suggested. The research results indicate that Northern Pakistan has witnessed the coming, rising, and falling of Hinduist, Buddhist, and Islamic cultures. The kernel density estimate shows that these three types of cultural heritage sites have different distribution ranges and aggregation degree, but they all gather around Islamabad with the highest aggregation degree. High resolution DEM analysis shows that more than 90% of these three types of cultural heritage sites are no farther than 800 m away from the river, which confirms the great significance of the river in history when these culture sites were selected. It also can be known from DEM that the location of these three types of sites is mainly no higher than 800 m, and the slope range is mainly between 0° and 10°, along rivers and main roads. Of the statistical data, the number of Islamic sites is the largest, followed by Buddhist sites and Hinduist sites respectively, reflecting the change of the number of preserved sites over time. Due to nature factors and human activities, at present, many sites such as Bhera and Vijhi are in a bad condition, which demands more efforts and better strategies to preserve. As to the current preservation and risks of the cultural heritage sites in Northern Pakistan, the corresponding protection strategies are put forward.

Key words: Pakistan, cultural heritage sites, spatial analysis, temporal and spatial distribution, status of preservation