Tag Archive: Afghanistan

Afghanistan occupies the north-eastern portion of the plateau of Iran and lies between 29° and 36° N, and 79° and 90° E. It borders on the north with Turkestan, on the east with Peshawer and the land of the Sikhs, as well as with part of Sindh, south to Baluchistan and west to Persia. The bottom slopes westward. The Himalayan range, the gigantic dividing wall of the Indies, continues westward in the Hindo-Khoe and the Paropamisus. From the Hindo-Khoe ridges run southward, reaching the coast of the Arabian Sea under the names of Soliman Mountains and Brahoei Mountains. These mountains form the natural borders of India, and Afghanistan in the country, where one passes from the basin of the Oxus to that of the Indus. Northwards a mountain pass above Kabul leads over the Hindo-Khoe, and southwards one travels through the deep valley of the Kabul River, at which Shelalabad and Peshawer are situated not far from the Kheiber Pass, and further through the Bolan Pass, a gorge of the Brahoei Mountains, through which one reaches Sindh. Those mountain passes are known from ancient times, even among the ancient Greeks, and the four capitals of the country, Kabul, Ghasnah, Kandahar, and Herat, owe their greatness to that important trade route which connects India with Persia and Turan. The Paropamisus Mountains, inhabited by the tribes of the Eimaks and Hazareh, are still largely unknown. The eastern highlands of Kabul and Ghasnah have a southwestern slope and pass into the desert of Sedshestan, where near the Persian borders the steppe lake Zareh receives the waters of Hilmend. The interior of Afghanistan is little known, so that the figures about its average altitude range from 1300 to 2200 Ned. el. The land is sparsely watered. The Indus forms part of its eastern frontier and incorporates the Kabul, the country’s only major river.