Afghanistan Map

About Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a landlocked, mountainous country where Central Asia, South Asia and Iran meet. It borders Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to the north, and China at the end of the narrow Wakhan Corridor in the far north-east. Its population is about 44 million (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate), but no full national census has been held since 1979, so all figures are estimates. The country is divided into 34 provinces (velayat).

Since August 2021 Afghanistan has been governed by the Taliban, who call the state the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. As of 2026 Russia, which took the step in July 2025, is the only country to have formally recognised the Taliban government. Many others, including China, the United Arab Emirates and several Central Asian neighbours, keep embassies in Kabul or accept Taliban-appointed diplomats without formal recognition. Most Western governments have no embassy there, citing among other things the restrictions on girls' and women's education and work.

The Hindu Kush and the shape of the country

The Hindu Kush runs from the north-east towards the centre of the country, and its western ranges, including the Koh-i-Baba, reach almost to Herat. The highest point, Noshaq (7,492 m), lies on the Pakistan border at the eastern end of the range. The mountains divide the country into distinct zones: the northern plains that slope down to the Amu Darya, which forms much of the border with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan; the central highlands of Bamiyan and the Hazarajat; the Kabul basin and the warmer valleys towards Jalalabad and the Khyber Pass; and the deserts of the south and south-west, the Registan and the Dasht-e Margo, through which the Helmand River flows towards the Sistan wetlands on the Iranian border. Earthquakes are frequent in the east and north-east; one in Kunar province in August 2025 killed more than 2,000 people.

Several of the country's borders were drawn by outside powers. The Durand Line with Pakistan was agreed with British India in 1893, and no Afghan government has formally accepted it as an international border. The Wakhan Corridor was created in the 1890s as a buffer between the Russian Empire and British India, which is why Afghanistan touches China at all.

Climate and seasons

Most of Afghanistan is arid or semi-arid, with hot, dry summers and cold winters. Kabul, at about 1,800 m, regularly has snow between December and February, while the high passes, such as the Salang tunnel route to the north, can be closed by avalanches. The south-west around Kandahar and Helmand is hot desert, with summer temperatures above 40°C. Most of the rain and snow falls in winter and spring, and meltwater from the Hindu Kush feeds the rivers and irrigation channels (including the old underground karez) that farming depends on. Droughts have become a recurring problem.

Major Cities

• Kabul - The capital and by far the largest city, home to several million people (estimates vary widely), set in a high basin on the Kabul River below the Hindu Kush.
• Kandahar - The main city of the south, capital of Ahmad Shah Durrani's 18th-century empire and the place where the Taliban movement emerged in 1994. The Taliban's supreme leader is based here.
• Herat - The western gateway to Iran and Turkmenistan, with a famous Friday Mosque and a long history as a Persian-speaking centre of art and learning.
• Mazar-i-Sharif - The hub of the north, built around the blue-tiled Shrine of Ali, linked by rail to Hairatan and the Friendship Bridge to Uzbekistan.
• Jalalabad - The eastern city on the road to the Khyber Pass and Pakistan, known for its mild winters and citrus orchards.

Peoples and languages

Afghanistan is ethnically diverse. Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks are the largest groups, with Turkmen, Aimaq, Baloch, Nuristanis and others. Dari (Afghan Persian) and Pashto are the official languages. Almost everyone is Muslim, mostly Sunni, with a Shia minority, largely Hazara. Rumi, the 13th-century poet, was born in or near Balkh, an ancient city outside Mazar-i-Sharif that the Greeks knew as Bactra.

A history written on the map

Afghanistan's mountain passes have carried armies and traders for millennia: Alexander the Great, the Buddhist Kushans, whose art produced the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan (destroyed by the Taliban in 2001), Mahmud of Ghazni and Babur, who founded the Mughal Empire from Kabul. The modern state grew from Ahmad Shah Durrani's empire of 1747. After three wars with Britain it regained control of its foreign affairs in 1919. The Soviet intervention of 1979-1989 was followed by civil war, the first Taliban government (1996-2001), the US-led intervention of 2001 and an internationally backed republic that collapsed when the Taliban took Kabul on 15 August 2021.

Relations with Pakistan have been tense since then, mainly over militant groups Pakistan says operate from Afghan soil. Fighting broke out across the border in October 2025 and again in February 2026, closing key crossings such as Torkham for long periods.

Interesting Facts

• Afghanistan uses UTC+4:30, one of the few half-hour time offsets in Asia. Iran, India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar also use half-hour offsets.
• Band-e-Amir, a chain of six deep-blue lakes held back by natural travertine dams in Bamiyan province, became the country's first national park in 2009.
• Afghanistan has two UNESCO World Heritage sites: the 12th-century Minaret of Jam, about 65 m tall in a remote valley of Ghor province, and the cultural landscape of the Bamiyan Valley.
• The Taliban banned opium poppy cultivation in 2022. UN surveys found cultivation fell by about 95 percent in 2023, after years in which Afghanistan supplied most of the world's illicit opium.
• Buzkashi, in which riders compete to carry a goat carcass to a scoring zone, is the national sport, played mainly in the north in winter.