Hindu kush mountain

The Hindu Kush is a mountain range in eastern and central Afghanistan, northwestern Pakistan, and northwestern India.It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and is a subrange of the Himalayas. It is also calculated to be the geographic center of population of the world. The western Safid Koh, the Malmand, Chalap Dalan, Siah Band and Doshakh are commonly referred to as the Paropamise by western scholars, though that name has been slowly falling out of use over the last few decdes.

Rivers that flow from the mountain system include the Helmand River, the Hari River and the Kabul River, watersheds for the Sistan Basin.Numerous high passes kotal transect the mountains, forming a strategically important network for the transit of caravans. The most important mountain pass is the Kotal e Salang it links Kabul and points south of it to northern Afghanistan.

The completion of a tunnel within this pass in reduced travel time between Kabul and the north to a few hours. Previously access to the north through the Kotal e Shibar took three days. The Salang tunnel at and the extensive network of galleries on the approach roads were constructed with Soviet financial and technological assistance and involved drilling miles through the heart of the Hindu Kush.

Before the Salang road was constructed, the most famous passes in the Western historical perceptions of Afghanistan were those leading to India. They include the Khyber Pass in Pakistan, and the Kotal e Lataband east of Kabul, which was superseded in by a road constructed within the Kabul River's most spectacular gorge, the Tang e Gharu. This remarkable engineering feat reduced travel time between Kabul and the Pakistan border from two days to a few hours.