Geographic Zones

Water

Domestic Animals

Domesticated plants in Afghanistan

Fauna in Afghanistan

Medical Plants in Afghanistan

Calenders used in Afghanistan

HALF WAY around the world from the United States sits landlocked Afghanistan, a harsh, brutal, beautiful land, dominated by the disembodied mountainous' core of the Hindu Kush, the westernmost extension of the Karakorum Mountains, and the Himalayas, which push from the Pamir Knot into central Afghanistan in a general northeast— southwesterly trend to within one hundred miles of the Iranian border. The ranges stretch about 600 miles, or 966 kilometers, laterally, with the average north—south measurement being 150 miles, or 240 kilometers. The Pamir Knot contains more than 100 peaks, which rise between 20,000 and 25,000 feet, or 6,100 and 7,620 meters, the highest in Afghanistan being Naochak (24,500 feet; 7,470 meters). The higher peaks in the central Hindu Kush vary from 14,000 to 17,000 feet, or 4,270 to 5,180 meters. The highest peak, Shah Foladi, in the Koh-i-Baba range of the central Hindu Kush, reaches an altitude of almost 17,000 feet, or 5,140 meters.

Many passes cut through the central Hindu Kush mountains, and in the past provided the main routes north and south.

North of the Hindu Kush lie the Turkestan Plains, rolling semi-deserts with altitudes between 900 and 1,200 feet, or 270 and 370 meters. The flood plains of the Amu Darya (classical Oxus) river and its tributaries arc relatively level and, in some places, marshy.

The dry western and southwestern sections of Afghanistan, extensions of the Iranian Plateau, rise gradually in altitude from west to east. In hospitable stony deserts dominate, but sandy deserts of considerable size exist in Registan south and east of the Hilmand River.

Anyone flying over Afghanistan will be struck by the nakedness of the terrain. Bare rock dominates dramatically everywhere above 14,000 feet or 4,270 meters. Scrub vegetation and grasslands cover most lower altitudes. Occasional clumps of trees appear in the foothills of the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush. True forests exist only in eastern Afghanistan, mainly in the provinces of Paktya, Ningrahar, and Kunar.

Ecologically, most of Afghanistan is semi-desert, with bare patches of pound showing through the vegetative cover. Even the high-valley vegetational patterns of the Wakhan Corridor are semi-desert.

The lush vale of Jalalabad, often described as "subtropical," actually has a "dry-summer subtropical" or "Mediterranean" climate and needs extensive irrigation to grow citrus fruits, rice, and sugar cane. Probably the best climatic analogues in the United States exist in the Imperial Valley of California and the Arizona citrus-fruit areas (Michel, 1959).

Although extensive and certainly not easily negotiable, the mountains of Afghanistan never truly served as barriers to cultural, economic, or political penetration, but merely funneled peoples and ideas along certain routes. Seasonally, the mountains and passes laden with snow could not be breached, so trading and raiding groups made end-arounds, skirting mountains until they reached the great gap between the Hindu Kush and Elburz Mountains (Iran). The terrain in the gap consists of lowland deserts, swamps, and plains extending from the Herat-Mashhad (Iran) line to Qandahar, from which India lies open and vulnerable.