Afghanistan, landlocked multiethnic country located in the heart of south-central Asia. Lying along important trade routes connecting southern and eastern Asia to Europe and the Middle East, Afghanistan has long been a prize sought by empire builders, and for millennia great armies have attempted to subdue it, leaving traces of their efforts in great monuments now fallen to ruin. The country’s forbidding landscape of deserts and mountains has laid many imperial ambitions to rest, as has the tireless resistance of its fiercely independent peoples—so independent that the country has failed to coalesce into a nation but has instead long endured as a patchwork of contending ethnic factions and ever-shifting alliances.
The Afghan Republic
The modern boundaries of Afghanistan were established in the late 19th century in the context of a rivalry between imperial Britain and tsarist Russia that Rudyard Kipling termed the “Great Game.” In the last quarter of the 20th century, Afghanistan suffered the ruinous effects of civil war greatly exacerbated by a military invasion and occupation by the Soviet Union (1979–89). In subsequent armed struggles, during which a surviving Afghan communist regime held out against Islamic insurgents (1989–92), an austere movement of religious students—the Taliban—rose up against the country’s governing parties and warlords and established a theocratic regime (1996–2001) that soon fell under the influence of a group of well-funded Islamists led by an exiled Saudi Arabian, Osama bin Laden. The Taliban regime collapsed in December 2001 in the wake of a sustained U.S.-dominated military campaign aimed at bin Laden and fighters of his al-Qaeda organization. Shortly thereafter, anti-Taliban forces agreed to a period of transitional leadership and an administration that would lead to a new constitution and the establishment of a democratically elected government.
Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, is its largest city. A serene city of mosques and gardens during the storied reign of the emperor Bābur (1526–30), founder of the Mughal dynasty, and for centuries an important entrepôt on the Silk Road, Kabul lay in ruins following the long and violent Afghan War. So, too, fared much of the country, its economy in shambles and its people scattered and despondent. By the early 21st century an entire generation of Afghans had come to adulthood knowing nothing but war.
The land
Afghanistan is completely landlocked—the nearest coast lies along the Arabian Sea, about 300 miles (480 km) south—and, because of its volatile political history, it remains one of the most poorly surveyed areas of the world. It is bounded to the east and south by Pakistan (including those areas of Kashmir administered by Pakistan but claimed by India), to the west by Iran, and to the north by the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Additionally, Afghanistan has a short border with Xinjiang, China, at the end of the long, narrow Vākhān (Wakhan Corridor), in the extreme northeast. Its overall area is roughly twice that of Norway.
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Afghanistan’s shape has been compared to a leaf, of which the Vākhān strip, nestled high in the Pamirs, forms the stem. The outstanding geographic feature of Afghanistan is its mountain range, the Hindu Kush. This formidable range creates the major pitch of Afghanistan from northeast to southwest and, along with its subsidiary ranges, divides Afghanistan into three distinct geographic regions: the central highlands, the northern plains, and the southwestern plateau. When the Hindu Kush itself reaches a point some 100 miles (160 km) north of Kabul, it spreads out and continues westward as a series of ranges under different names: Bābā, Bāyan, Sefīd Kūh (Paropamisus), and others. One of these spurs is the Torkestān Mountains, which extend northwestward. Other important ranges include the Sīāh Kūh (south of Harīrūd), and Ḥeṣār Mountains (northward). A number of other ranges extend to the southwest. On the eastern frontier with Pakistan, several mountain ranges effectively isolate the interior of Afghanistan from moisture-laden winds that blow from India Ocean. This accounts for
Regions based on physiography
The central highlands—actually a part of the Himalayan chain—include the main Hindu Kush range. Its area is about 160,000 square miles (414,000 square km), which is a region of deep, narrow valleys and lofty mountains, some peaks of which rise above 21,000 feet (6,400 metres). High mountain passes, generally situated between 12,000 and 15,000 feet (3,600 to 4,600 metres) above sea level are of great strategic importance and include the Shebar Pass, located northwest of Kabul where the Bābā Mountains branch out from the Hindu Kush; and the storied Khyber Pass, which leads to the Indian subcontinent, on the Pakistan border southeast of Kabul. The Badakhshān area in northeastern part of the central highlands is the location for epicentres for many earthquakes that occur in the country each year.
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The northern plains region extends eastward from the Iranian border to the foothills of the Pamirs, near the border with Tajikistan. It comprises some 40,000 square miles (103,000 square km) of plains and fertile foothills sloping gently toward the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus River). This area is a part of the much larger Central Asian Steppe, from which it is separated by the Amu Darya. The average elevation is about 2,000 feet (600 metres). The region possesses rich mineral resources, particularly deposits of natural gas.
The southwestern plateau, south of the central highlands, is a region of high plateaus, sandy deserts and semideserts. The average elevation is about 3,000 feet (900 metres). The southwestern plateau covers about 50,000 square miles (130,000 square km), one-fourth of which forms the sandy Rīgestān region. Several large rivers cross the southwestern plateau; among them are the Helmand River and its major tributary, the Arghandāb.
In Afghanistan, the average elevation is between 2,000 and 10,000 feet (600 and 3,000 metres). The elevation of the Amu Darya in the north and the Helmand River delta in the southwest is about 2,000 feet. It is approximately 1,500 to 1,700 feet (450 to 500 metres) high on the southwestern plateau.
Afghanistan’s drainage
Afghanistan’s drainage systems are confined within the country. The only rivers that drain an area of 83,000 square kilometers (32,000 square miles) flow into the sea–the Kābul River, the major eastern stream, flows into the Indus River in Pakistan and the Amu Darya flows into the Aral Sea.
The Amu Darya, 1,578 miles (2,540 km) long, originates in the glaciers of the Pamirs and drains an area of approximately 93,000 square miles (241,000 square km) in the northeastern and northern parts of the country. It forms the border between Afghanistan and the republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for about 600 miles (1,000 km) of its upper course. Two of its major Afghan tributaries, the Kowkcheh and the Qondūz, rise in the mountains of Badakhshān and Kondoz provinces. The Amu Darya becomes navigable from its confluence with the Kowkcheh at Feyẕābād.
The northwestern drainage system is dominated by the Harīrūd River, originating on the western slopes of the Bābā Mountains, at an elevation of 9,000 feet (2,750 metres). The river flows westward, just south of Herāt and across the broad Herāt Valley. After irrigating the fertile lands of the valley, the Harīrūd turns north about 80 miles (130 km) west of Herāt and forms the border between Afghanistan and Iran for a distance of 65 miles (105 km). It then crosses into Turkmenistan and disappears in the Karakum Desert.
A major drainage system in the southeast of the country is the Kbul River, which flows eastward from the slopes of the Paghan range to feed the Indus River in Pakistan.
There are extremes in the quality of the soils in the country. In the central highlands, you will find desert-steppe and meadow-steppe soils. The northern plains have extremely fertile, loesslike soils, whereas the southwestern plateau has infertile desert soils except along the rivers, where alluvial deposits can be found. There is much erosion in the central highlands, especially in areas where there is heavy rainfall and monsoons.
The climate
In general, Afghanistan has extremely cold winters and hot summers, typical of a semiarid steppe climate. There are many regional variations, however. While the mountain regions of the northeast have a subarctic climate with dry, cold winters, the mountainous areas on the border of Pakistan are influenced by the Indian monsoons, usually coming between July and September and bringing maritime tropical air masses with humidity and rains. In addition, winds blow almost daily in the southwest during the summer.
In the mountains, the annual mean precipitation increases from west to east; there, as in the southeastern monsoon region, it averages about 16 inches (400 mm). National precipitation extremes have been recorded in the Sālang Pass of the Hindu Kush, with a highest annual precipitation of 53 inches (1,350 mm), and in the arid region of Farāh in the west, with only 3 inches (75 mm) per year. Most of the country’s precipitation occurs from December to April; in the highlands snow falls from December to March, while in the lowlands it rains intermittently from December to April or May. The summer months are hot, dry, and cloudless everywhere but in the monsoon region.
Animals and plants
The plant cover becomes denser toward the north, where precipitation is more abundant, and at higher elevations the vegetation is almost luxuriant, particularly in the mountainous region north of Jalālābād. The high mountains abound with large forest trees, among which conifers, such as pine and fir, predominate. Some of these trees are 180 feet (55 metres) high.
Most of the wild animals of the subtropical temperate zone inhabit Afghanistan. Large mammals, formerly abundant, are now greatly reduced in numbers, and the tiger has disappeared. There is still a great variety of wild animals roaming the mountains and foothills, including wolves, foxes, striped hyenas, jackals, gazelles, wild dogs, and wildcats (including snow leopards), goats (including markhor and ibex), sheep (urial and argali), bears (brown), and small animals (mongooses, moles, shrews, hedgehogs, bats, kangaroo rats).
Migratory birds abound during the spring and fall seasons, as well as pheasants, quail, cranes, pelicans, snipe, partridge, and crows.
The rivers, streams, and lakes are full of freshwater fish, but their numbers are not great except on the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, where brown trout are well stocked.