Afghanistan - A must visit piece of land

Afghanistan officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 31 million people, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east; Iran in the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north; and China in the far northeast. Its territory covers 652,000 km² (252,000 sq mi), making it the 41st largest country in the world.

Human habitation in Afghanistan dates back to the Middle Paleolithic Era, and the country's strategic location along the Silk Road connected it to the cultures of the Middle East and other parts of Asia. Through the ages the land has been home to various peoples and witnessed numerous military campaigns, notably by Alexander the Great, Muslim Arabs,  Mongols, British, Soviet Russians, and in the modern-era by Western powers. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, and others have risen to form major empires.

The political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a buffer state in the "Great Game" between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah and King Mohammed Zahir Shah attempted to modernize the country. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a Soviet invasion and a series of civil wars that devastated much of Afghanistan.

In December 2001, after the Taliban government was toppled and the new Afghan government under President Hamid Karzai was formed, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was established by the UN Security Council to help assist the Karzai administration and provide basic security.

Meanwhile, the Afghan government was able to build some democratic structures, and the country changed its name to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Attempts were made, often with the support of foreign donor countries, to improve the country's economy, healthcare, education, transport, and agriculture. ISAF forces also began to train the Afghan National Security Forces. In the decade following 2002, over five million Afghans were repatriated, including some who were forcefully deported from Western countries.

A landlocked mountainous country with plains in the north and southwest, Afghanistan is located within South Asia and Central Asia. It is part of the US coined Greater Middle East Muslim world, which lies between latitudes 29° N and 39° N, and longitudes 60° Eand 75° E. The country's highest point is Noshaq, at 7,492 m (24,580 ft) above sea level. It has a continental climate with harsh winters in the central highlands, the glaciated northeast (around Nuristan), and the Wakhan Corridor, where the average temperature in January is below −15 °C (5 °F), and hot summers in the low-lying areas of the Sistan Basin of the southwest, the Jalalabad basin in the east, and theTurkestan plains along the Amu River in the north, where temperatures average over 35 °C (95 °F) in July.

Landscapes of Afghanistan, from left to right: 1. Band-e Amir National Park; 2. Salang Pass inParwan Province; 3. Korangal Valley in Kunar Province; and 4. Kajaki Dam in Helmand Province

Despite having numerous rivers and reservoirs, large parts of the country are dry. The endorheic Sistan Basin is one of the driest regions in the world.  Aside from the usual rainfall, Afghanistan receives snow during the winter in the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains, and the melting snow in the spring season enters the rivers, lakes, and streams.  However, two-thirds of the country's water flows into the neighboring countries of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan. The state needs more than US$2 billion to rehabilitate its irrigation systems so that the water is properly managed.

The northeastern Hindu Kush mountain range, in and around the Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan, is in a geologically activearea where earthquakes may occur almost every year. They can be deadly and destructive sometimes, causing landslides in some parts or avalanches during the winter. The last strong earthquakes were in 1998, which killed about 6,000 people in Badakhshan near Tajikistan. This was followed by the 2002 Hindu Kush earthquakes in which over 150 people were killed and over 1,000 injured. A 2010 earthquake left 11 Afghans dead, over 70 injured, and more than 2,000 houses destroyed.

The country's natural resources include: coal, copper, iron ore, lithium, uranium, rare earth elements, chromite, gold, zinc, talc,barites, sulfur, lead, marble, precious and semi-precious stones, natural gas, and petroleum, among other things. In 2010, US and Afghan government officials estimated that untapped mineral deposits located in 2007 by the US Geological Survey are worth between $900 bn and $3 trillion.

At 652,230 km² (251,830 sq mi), Afghanistan is the world's 41st largest country, slightly bigger than France and smaller than Burma, about the size of Texas in the United States. It borders Pakistan in the south and east; Iran in the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north; and China in the far east.

Band-e Amir National Park - Afghanistan's 'Grand Canyon'

BAND-E-AMIR, Afghanistan -- It's been called Afghanistan's Grand Canyon; 230 square miles of soaring cliffs and cascading lakes on the edge of the Hindu Kush Mountains. Band-e-Amir is Afghanistan's first national park.

The landmines from decades of war are gone. The villagers who stripped the hills of brush for fuel and hunted the wildlife to near extinction for food, they have new jobs as official park rangers. Hajji Zahir was one of the first. He says, "During Taliban many, many people come and hunt here."

He and a dozen others like him are being paid to protect this place, a project funded by US AID. They watch for poachers, they look out for wildlife, they talk to tourists; many believe these waters have the power to heal.

The ranger job comes with a uniform and a salary. Still, the idea took some getting used to; for generations these people have lived off the land. The concept of conservation didn't exist. Zahir says, "I think it is better now than before. It is because before these people before not understand what is national park."

The biggest benefit so far is money. Tourist numbers have exploded from 900 a year to 6,000, almost all Afghans.

The park is changing the economy of entire villages here. Farmers are renting out spare rooms and their donkeys to tourists; for the first time they're able to make a living off of these lakes.

Marzia's family used to survive by collecting shrub brush from the hills for fuel. Now, they rent out a room to tourists for about $27 a night.

She says for the first time her family is earning a good living. The villagers are starting to see another benefit; the park, and the land on its borders is coming back to life.

Last summer, a Persian leopard, thought to be extinct in Afghanistan, was caught roaring at a remote camera on the park's edge. Naseem Sultani heads up the park ranger program for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Sultani says, "When we got down to the cameras we opened and suddenly we could see there was a Persian leopard, and I must tell you we start dancing you know? We were on the sky!"

These days, the rangers are learning English. There are plans to build an airport nearby, so tourists can fly over the long and dangerous road from Kabul. Zahir says, "I hope this national park slowly, slowly makes this seem like in other countries."

Safe enough to share this extraordinary landscape with the rest of world.

Plants are seen along the edges of the lakes' clear blue waters. Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency (Nepa) said the creation of the park would help the region attract international tourism and obtain World Heritage status. 'The park will draw people from Herat to Kabul to Jalalabad... to be inspired by the great beauty of Afghanistan's first national park, Band-e-Amir,' said Mostapha Zaher, Nepa's director-general

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Band-e-Amir is visited by thousands of Afghans and pilgrims, though foreign tourism has all but ceased as security nationwide has deteriorated. The new park is near the valley of Bamiyan, famous for the giant Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in late 2001

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

A waterfall contrasts with the surrounding red cliffs of the high desert

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

For those who prefer not to swim, pink, blue and yellow swan-shaped pedalos can be hired for less than a dollar for an hour of floating about on the placid waters

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

However, Band-e-Amir still hosts ibex (wild goats), Urials (wild sheep - pictured here), wolves, foxes, fish, and birds

Joel Sartore/Getty Images

Years of conflict have taken a heavy toll on wildlife in the area. Snow leopards have vanished from the park due to hunting

Darren Greenwood /Rex Features

An aerial view of Lake Band-e-Amir. The lakes are famous for their intense and varying colours, which range from faint turquoise to deep blue - a result of the minerals that fill the water and create the lake beds. Towering cliffs create sharp lines and shadows on the south side of many of the lakes

Omar Sobhani/Reuters

According to local lore the huge natural dams of slow-growing mineral deposits that hold the lakes in place were thrown into position by Hazrat Ali, the prophet Muhammad's son-in-law, during the reign of the infidel king Barbar

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Paghman - A touristic spot

Paghman is a town in the hills near Afghanistan's capital of Kabul. It is the seat of the Paghman District which has a population of about 120,000 (2002 official UNHCR est.). The Paghman District is situated in the western part of Kabul Province. The Paghman Gardens is a major attraction in Paghman, and is why the city is sometimes known as the capital garden of Afghanistan. After King Amanullah Khan and Queen Soraya Tarzi's return from Europe, Amanullah brought in foreign experts to redesign Kabul. At that time, at the entrance of Paghman, they created a European style monumental gate similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France.

Paghman district borders Wardak and Parwan provinces to the west, Shakardara District to the north, Kabul to the east and Char Asiab District to the south-east. Its headquarters is the town of Paghman, which is situated in the northeastern part of the district. The Paghman area is greener compared to many other parts of the region, and also has fruit trees. Located at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountain range, Paghman became a holiday retreat with villas and chalets, as well as the summer capital. It was a popular place for the wealthy and the aristocracy to visit. It is known today as a place where people can relax and spend the weekends, and has become an important place for local and foreign tourists. The Kabul River, the only large river in the Kabul province, is fed by springs and snow-melt runoffs from Paghman. There is also a canal system, in need of repair, which extends from Paghman to Tapa (hill).

Getting to Know Afghanistan's Huge New National Park

Getting to Know Afghanistan's Huge New National Park



Wakhan National Park—Afghanistan's second such sanctuary—protects mountains, snow leopards, and indigenous people.

 

Afghanistan announced the creation of its second national park this week, a new protected area that is 25 percent larger than Yellowstone National Park in the U.S.

 

Wakhan National Park encompasses soaring mountains, alpine grasslands, and unique wildlife in the northeastern part of Afghanistan, where it will preserve the traditional ways of life practiced by communities inside its borders.

Prince Mostapha Zaher, the director-general of Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency, called it "one of the last truly wild places on the planet." Zaher said his grandfather, King Zaher Shah, had first dreamed of creating a national park in the area in the 1950s.

"We can prove that the cause of protecting the environment and wildlife can also be utilized as an instrument of peace and tolerance," said Zaher.

"The government of Afghanistan understands that it is absolutely essential for reconstruction to protect its natural resources," adds Peter Zahler, the deputy director of the Asia program for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which worked with the Afghan government to establish the park.

The founding of the vast new park—which is 4,200 square miles (about a million hectares)—builds on the success Afghanistan has had with its first national park, Band-e Amir, which was designated in 2009.

"The communities in Band-e Amir love it," says Zahler. "[The park] has brought attention, tourists, and jobs. [So] the communities in Wakhan are really enthusiastic."

The Wakhan District—profiled in a February 2013 National Geographic magazine feature—is a narrow corridor of land jutting off the northeastern tip of Afghanistan. It is bordered by Pakistan to the south, China to the east, and Tajikistan to the north. The region contains the headwaters of the Amu Darya River and is the place where the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains meet

 

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