Are you planning to visit Afghanistan? But you must know about Afghanistan before planning.
Afghanistan, approximately the size of Texas, is bordered on the north by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, on the extreme northeast by China, on the east and south by Pakistan, and by Iran on the west. The country is split east to west by the Hindu Kush mountain range, rising in the east to heights of 24,000 ft (7,315 m). With the exception of the southwest, most of the country is covered by high snow-capped mountains and is traversed by deep valleys.
Climate
The climate of Afghanistan is arid to semiarid with cold winters and hot summers and temperatures varying by altitude. Kabul’s average January temperature is 0 degrees C (32 F), while noon temperatures in July often reach 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit). Jalalabad can hit 46 Celsius (115 Fahrenheit) in the summer.
Most of the precipitation that falls in Afghanistan comes in the form of winter snow. The nation-wide annual average is only 10–12 inches (25–30 centimeters), but snowdrifts in the mountain valleys can reach depths of over 6.5 ft (2 m).
Official Languages
Afghanistan’s official languages are Dari and Pashto, both of which are Indo-European languages in the Iranian sub-family. Written Dari and Pashto both use a modified Arabic script. Other Afghan languages include Hazaragi, Uzbek, and Turkmen.
Dari is the Afghan dialect of the Persian language. It is quite similar to Iranian Dari, with slight differences in pronunciation and accent. The two are mutually intelligible. Dari is the lingua franca, and around 77% of Afghanis speak Dari as their first language.
About 48% of the people of Afghanistan speak Pashto, the language of the Pashtun tribe. It is also spoken in the Pashtun areas of western Pakistan. Other spoken languages include Uzbek 11%, English 6%, Turkmen 3%, Urdu 3%, Pashayi 1%, Nuristani 1%, Arabic 1%, and Balochi 1%. Many people speak more than one language.
Cuisines
Afghan cuisine is more sophisticated than kebabs and rice. This landlocked country has been at the crossroads of major civilizations for centuries and that is reflected in what is on the menu. Sample its delicate ashak, a ravioli stuffed with leeks, and topped with minced meat and yogurt, or Mantu pasta filled with lamb and onions. And new influences are still emerging as Afghanistan opens its doors to the world. If you yearn for something lighter, former Japanese journalist-turned chef Hiromi (now known as Mursal which means Rose in Persian) fell in love with the country, married an Afghan, and is training Afghans to make mouth-watering sushi.
Ethnic groups
No national census has been conducted in Afghanistan since a partial count in 1979, and years of war and population dislocation have made an accurate ethnic count impossible. Current population estimates are therefore rough approximations, which show that Pashtuns comprise about two-fifths of the population. The two largest Pashtun tribal groups are the Durrānī and Ghilzay. Tajiks are likely to account for some one-fourth of Afghans, while Ḥazāra and Uzbeks each constitute nearly one-tenth. Chahar Aimaks, Turkmen, and other ethnic groups each account for small portions of the population.
Games in Afghanistan
Afghanistan would like its national game, buzkashi, or goat-grabbing, to be an Olympic sport. Regarded as the world’s wildest game, it involves riders on horseback competing to grab a goat carcass, and gallop clear of the others to drop it in a chalked circle. It has been played on Afghanistan’s northern steppe for centuries. The game used to be the sport of rich rival warlords but is now also financed by Afghan mobile phone companies and private airlines. But it is still not a sport for the faint-hearted, and women should not apply.
Industries
- Afghanistan grows fruits, nuts and wheat; they also rear sheep and goats and produce wool.
- Its industry consists of soap, furniture, shoes and textiles.
- Afghanistan exports fruits, nuts, wool, cotton and handwoven carpets.
New Year Celebration
New Year is celebrated by Afghans on 21st March. They call it “Nawroz”. It is a pre-Islamic festival which is celebrated by a gathering of thousands of travelers from across Afghanistan to the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. There is a mosque in the center of the city. It is known as the Blue Mosque or ‘the Shrine of Hazrat Ali’ the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H).
Natural disasters
Decades of conflict along with limited environmental investment make Afghanistan increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters.
Since the beginning of 2019, more than 260,000 people were affected by natural disasters throughout Afghanistan. Thirty provinces — out of 34 total — experienced some kind of natural disaster, ranging from earthquakes and flooding to drought, landslides and avalanches.
Drought, in particular, has affected more than two-thirds of Afghanistan, leaving people who rely on agriculture in desperate situations where they need both food and new ways of earning income.
Best Places To Visit In Afghanistan
1. Shrine of the Cloak
The Shrine of the Cloak is located adjacent to the main mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It contains the Kherqa, a cloak believed to have been worn by the Islamic prophet Muhammad during the famous Night Journey in 621 CE. It is one of the holiest sites in Islam and even considered as the heart of Afghanistan.
The building’s exteriors are of green marble from Lashkargah, with tiled surfaces and gilded archways. The cloak itself is locked away inside the mosque and is rarely seen. It has been guarded by the same family for over 250 years. Its guardians have traditionally only shown the cloak to recognized leaders of Afghanistan, although in times of great crisis such as natural disasters, it has been publicly displayed as a means of reassurance.
2. Blue Mosque or Shrine of Hazrat Ali
The Blue Mosque, also known as the Shrine of Hazrat Ali, is a mosque located in the center of Mazar-i-Sharif in the northern Balkh Province of Afghanistan. The site is also where many pilgrims annually celebrate Nowruz. At the annual Jahenda Bala ceremony, a holy flag is raised in honour of Hazrat Ali.
3. Band-e Amir National Park
It is a national park located in the Bamyan Province of central Afghanistan. It is a series of six deep blue lakes separated by natural dams made of travertine, a mineral deposit. The lakes are situated in the Hindu Kush mountains at approximately 3000 m of elevation, west of the famous Buddhas of Bamiyan. They were created by the carbon dioxide-rich water oozing out of the faults and fractures to deposit calcium carbonate precipitate in the form of travertine walls that today store the water of these lakes.
Band-e Amir is one of the few rare natural lakes in the world which are created by travertine systems. The site of Band-e Amir has been described as Afghanistan’s Grand Canyon and draws thousands of tourists a year. The river is part of the system of the Balkh River.
4. Qargha Lake
Qargha is a dam and reservoir in Afghanistan near Kabul. The reservoir and its peripheral areas provide for recreation facilities such as boating, surfing, golfing, etc. and has a hotel on its bank. There is a fishery development in the reservoir supported by a hatchery on its banks.
5. Khyber Pass
The Khyber Pass surely falls into that broad group of spots, not at the present time on the list for the tourist in Afghanistan – since at least 2007, the whole area here has been ruled by Taliban guerrillas, with western assistance and military convoys targeted precisely. However, once the tensity lift and the battle diminishes, this high-perched expanse of land in the elevations of the Spin Ghar will surely be worth the trip. Why? Well, because for centuries it’s housed armies and businessmen. They appeared on the Silk Road from China and the east, or they came in the shape of wonderful military leaders like Alexander the Great and Genghis Kahn.
6. Bamiyan
For enthusiasts of culture and religious history, the Bamiyan tale is really a sorrowful one. In old times, the area was familiar as a center for Hindu–Buddhist worship, and it prospered with craftsmen, monasteries, and – specifically – carvers in the ages before the Muslim occupation. Actually, the two massive sculptures of the Buddha that erected here were thought to be some of the most distinguished 4th and 5th-century sculptures in all of Asia. In March 2001, however, these significant sculptures were destructed by the Taliban, generation international rage, and even causing UNESCO to tag their residues to stop further demolition.
7. Panjsher Valley
This province was created in April 2004 from the northeastern districts of Parvan Province. It is virtually identical with the upper part of the Panjsher Valley and its catchment. A map of the present (2011) administrative divisions of Panjsher Province is provided by the link below. Note that Bazarak and Rukha towns are located in Unaba District, and not in Bazarak and Rukha districts, respectively, as the district names suggest. Also, note that Bazarak town is erroneously indicated on the Google map at the place of Barak village.
Mineral occurrences in this province are predominantly pegmatites and emerald-bearing quartz-ankerite veins, hosted in Ordovician rocks. Please note that the emerald mines are not in pegmatites. Thus, specimens without a specific mine name given should be listed as coming from Panjsher Province, not from the Panjsher valley pegmatite field.
8. Mazar-e Sharif
North Afghanistan’s biggest city, Mazar-e Sharif was long overshadowed by the power of its neighbor Balkh. It took a 12th-century mullah to change that. He claimed to have found the hidden tomb of Ali, the Prophet Mohammed’s son-in-law, buried in a local village. Balkh declined and Mazar grew as a place of pilgrimage. Its shrine today is the focus of the national Nauroz (Navrus) celebrations and is a great place to see buzkashi (a traditional polo-like game played with a headless goat carcass).
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