{"book":"adl0980","page":57,"text":"GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES\nTHE exact geographic description of\nAfghanistan is between Longitude\nE.60.30 and 75.50, and Latitude N.29.30\nand 38.30. Bounded on all sides by land,\nit covers an area of 250,000 sq. miles,\nfrom the awesome peaks of the Hindu-\nkush in the north-east, to the western\ndeserts of the Helmand.\nAlong the approximately 1,200-mile-\nlong northern border, mostly defined by\nthe rivers Amu (Oxus) and Murghab, lie\nthe Soviet Republics of Tajikistan,\nUzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.\nThe western border, against Iran, is\nalso partially marked by rivers and lakes,\nand runs from Zulfiqar down to the Malik\nSiah mountain.\nThe southern boundary is flanked by\nBaluchistan; whilst to the east the Wakhan\nfinger of Afghanistan touches on to the\nSinkiang Province of the Chinese People's\nRepublic, to Chitral, and Pakhtunistan.\nAfghanistan has been called the\n\"Switzerland of Asia\", mainly due to its\nmountains and the absence of a seaboard.\nFrom the north-east to the south-west\nstretch the massive Hindukush ranges,\nestimated at between 2½ and 3 million\nyears old. They are, in fact, a continuation\nof the Himalayas, which, after subsiding\nin the desert area between Afghanistan\nand Iran, reappear in Southern Persia and\nreach up to Turkey. Another extension of\nthis line goes through Herat and into Iran\nto form the Khurasan range.\nAround the north-eastern tip of\nAfghanistan we get the immense, high\nPamir Plateau, commonly known as the\n\"Roof of the World\", of which Wakhan\ncomprises the western section. This latter,\na narrow strip of land situated south of\nthe Victoria Lake, separates the U.S.S.R.\nfrom Chitral, and creates the border\nbetween Afghanistan and the Sinkiang\nProvince of China. Due to the changes\nwrought during the Fourth Geological\nPeriod the whole area has the appearance\nof giant walls towering thousands of feet\n\nabove narrow valleys, where the thawing\nof perpetual snows has produced power-\nful torrents.\nSince Wakhan suffers severe winter for\nseven months of the year only a few of\nthe southernmost valleys are inhabited,\ngenerally by folk who draw their live-\nlihood from sheep rearing.\nMOUNTAIN RANGES\nHindukush\nThe Hindukush itself is the largest\nrange in Afghanistan, and has played a\nsignificant role throughout her history: for\ncenturies its passes have been used as\ncommunication routes between the Amu\nand Sind (Indus) rivers.\nStraddling the country from the north-\neast to the south-west, the Hindukush\nshould be studied from two viewpoints—\nthe central core; and the peripheral ranges,\nwhich we shall enumerate later on.\nFrom the north to the central core the\nshrinking of the earth's crust caused in-\nnumerable anticlines, later to take the\nshape of mountains. The synclines, on\nthe other hand, have been completely or\npartially filled with rivers, so creating\ntectonic valleys, such as at Seighan and\nSurkhab in the north, and Panjsher,\nGhorband, and Bamyan in the south.\nIn all the Hindukush comprises a\nlength of around 370 miles, which may be\ndivided topographically into two sections,\neastern and western. The former runs\nfrom the Uli Valley in Little Pamir to the\nKhawak Pass in Southern Badakhsan,\nthe western range from Khawak to Ak\nRobat in the Valley of Bamyan.\nThe Eastern Hindukush is highest of\nthe Afghan mountain ranges. Approxi-\nmately 16,400ft. above sea level none of\nits passes is lower than 8,000ft., which\nmeans they are deep in snow for most of\nthe year. The greatest peak is that of the\nTer Ajmir, 25,400.; and amongst the\nmost important passes come the Shetbal,\n15,978ft., the Aulian, 16,634ft., and the\nKhar Zar, 15,748ft.\n54","chars":3590,"image":"https://storage.googleapis.com/adl-page-images/adl0980/00057.jpg","first_page":1,"last_page":93,"title":"Afghan progress in the fourth year plan","permalink":"https://afghanpress.org/book/adl0980/57","canvas":"https://afghanpress.org/iiif/adl0980/canvas/57","source":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/books/adl0980/","source_pdf":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/pdf/adl0980_download.pdf","rights":{"image":{"statement":"Public domain. NYU states: \"All works presented on this website are, unless otherwise indicated, in the public domain. The images available on this website may be freely reproduced, distributed and transmitted by anyone for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial.\"","uri":"http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/","holder":"New York University Libraries","source":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/about.html","delivery":"Images are served from a copy mirrored by this project, not from NYU's servers, under the reproduction terms above.","endorsement":"This is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by New York University."},"text":{"statement":"Machine-generated transcription, dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. No warranty of accuracy: see the provenance block on every page.","uri":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/","holder":"Steps Ventures"}},"provenance":{"text_produced_by":"gemini-3.1-pro-preview","thinking_level":"low","read_completed":"2026-08-09","per_page_confidence":null,"per_page_confidence_note":"Not recorded during the corpus run. No calibrated per-page score exists, and none is estimated here.","human_reviewed":false,"accuracy_context":"Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting.","primary_source":"The page image. The text is an index into it."}}