[Grammar] "as far back as" adverb or preposition?

[hothead2692]

"I’d watched them as far back as Chandigarh, leaping from roofs and balconies as the living dead filled the street."

I'm confuse whether this phrase is an adverb or preposition, or is it an idiom?

 

[BobK]

'as far back as <expression-of-time> is an adverb phrase. In this case 'Chandigarh' - presumably a place name - refers to a time when the speaker was in that place (rather like me saying 'as far back as Cambridge' to mean 'as far back as [the time when I was at] Cambridge').

b

PS This use of a noun to refer to a memorable time reminds me of a survivor of Guernica saying 'antes de la aviación' [literally= 'before the aviation' but at the time 'aviation' was such a novelty that the phrase meant 'before the planes came [and bombed us]'.]

 

[hothead2692]

Thank you for your reply.

 

[Rover_KE]

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Rover