introductionfrontier between India and the plains of Balkh and Central Asia. In this
era, Bala Murghab, the Saighan valley north of Bamiyan, Charikar and
Kabul were frontier outposts. The central highlands consist of a series of
ranges that rise in height from west to east. In the northwest the limestone
plateau of the Tir Band-i Turkistan stretches from Bala Murghab to east
of Sar-i Pul, where it merges with the Koh-i Alburz. This chain of hills is
cut through with a series of deep, narrow gorges and is one of the least
explored regions of the country. The perennial springs that rise on the
northern face of this limestone plateau are the main source of the rivers
that irrigate the lower valleys and the Balkh plains.
To the north and south of the Hari Rud lie the Safed Koh and Siyah
Koh ranges, which eventually converge with the Koh-i Baba to the east,
the snow-capped tops of which dominate the skyline of the Hazarajat. The
Koh-i Baba then merges into the Hindu Kush of southeastern Afghanistan
and the Pamirs of Badakhshan in the northeast, mountain chains that
form the western tip of the Himalayas. Another series of mountain ranges
run along the Afghan–Pakistan frontier. In the southwest of Afghanistan
lie the inhospitable Dasht-i Margo, the Desert of Death, and the desert of
the Registan and Sistan. In the northern plains, the Dasht-i Laili, between
Daulatabad and Shibarghan, is another, smaller semi-desert region.
The central highlands and the hill country of the Afghan–Pakistan
frontier are bisected by ancient routes that have linked India with Inner
Asia, Iran and China for millennia, routes which have been used both for
trade and invaders such as Alexander the Great, Persians, Arabs, Turco-
Mongolian tribes from Inner Asia, and north Indian dynasties. Travel
through the central mountain chains is difficult at the best of times and
from late October to April the passes and upper valleys are snowbound. In
the 1950s Soviet engineers constructed a new road and tunnel through the
Salang Pass, which made it possible to drive from Kabul to Mazar-i Sharif
in less than a day, but the Salang too is often blocked by snow or avalanches
during the winter. In the south and southeast two other historic roads cut
through the mountains of the Afghan–Pakistan frontier. The southern one
links Kandahar with Quetta and Baluchistan via the Khojak Pass, while
in the northeast the Khyber Pass is still the only major highway between
Kabul and Peshawar. Historically several other minor routes linked south-
ern Afghanistan with the Indus plains, but today they are mainly used by
local tribes, nomads, smugglers and insurgents.
To the west, north, south and southeast of the central highlands lie
fertile plains that are Afghanistan’s main agricultural regions. These areas
are watered by rivers sourced from the melting snows: the proverb ‘better