Andkhroy

Andkhroy city is situated in Northern Afghanistan, in Fakyab province, near the Turkmenistan border. Wool is its chief product, and it has a noted trade in fruits and karakul (Persian lamb) skins. Andkhui is also known for its handwoven rugs. Legend attributes the city's founding to Alexander the Great (4th cent. BC). It was subject to the khanate of Bukhara for some time, until a Russo-Afghan boundary commission assigned it to Afghanistan in 1885.

Badakhshan   

Badakhshan is situated in North East Afghanistan, between the Hindu Kush Mts. and the Amu Darya River. The capital is Faizabad . Renowned for its mineral wealth, it is the world's chief source of lapis lazuli, a semiprecious stone. The deposits have been worked for more than 3,000 years. Rubies, emeralds, amethysts, and gold have also been mined. Mountain goats and the famed Marco Polo wild sheep are hunted in the province. Some agriculture and sheep and goat herding are also practiced. In 1859 it became a part of Afghanistan. Badhakshan's most distinctive feature is the Vakhan (Wakhan Corridor), a long narrow panhandle that passes between Tajikistan in the north and Pakistan in the south, linking Afghanistan with the Xinjiang region in China. Badakhshan was once part of the ancient Greek kingdom of Bactria . Many of its inhabitants are Tajiks.

Baglan

Baglan city is located in northern Afghanistan, on the Kunduz River. It produces beet sugar, cotton, and fabrics. A recently constructed highway system links Baghlan with Kabul and a number of other major cities in Afghanistan.

Balkh

Balkh town, Northern Afghanistan, lies on a dried-up tributary of the Amu Darya River. One of the world's oldest cities, it is the legendary birthplace of the prophet Zoroaster . Alexander the Great reputedly founded a Greek colony at the site c.328 BC The city later attained great wealth and importance as Bactra, capital of the independent kingdom of Bactria . In the early centuries AD, Balkh, a prominent center of Buddhism, was renowned for its Buddhist monasteries and stupas. Conquered by the Arabs in the 8th cent., it became important in the world of Islam as the original home of the Barmakids . Under the Abbasid caliphate its fame as a center of learning earned Balkh the title mother of cities.The city was sacked in 1221 by Jenghiz Khan and lay in ruins until Timur rebuilt it (early 16th cent.). It passed to the Uzbeks and then briefly to the Mughal empire before falling (18th cent.) to Nadir Shah. In 1850, Balkh became part of the unified kingdom of Afghanistan. The old city is now mostly in ruins; the new city, some distance away, is an agricultural and commercial center, inhabited chiefly by Uzbeks. Excavations have uncovered objects of the early Muslim period.

Bamian

Bamian town is capital of Bamian province which lies in  North central Afghanistan, on the Kunduz River. The population is predominantly Hazara. It was long a major caravan center on the route across the Hindu Kush between India and central Asia.

By the 7th cent. the town was a center of Buddhism; the Chinese pilgrims Fa Hsien and Hsüan-tsang traveled through the town. Bamian was invaded by the Saffarids in 871. A Muslim fortress town from the 9th to the 12th cent., Bamian was sacked by Jenghiz Khan in 1221 and never regained its former prominence. The Bamian valley is lined with cave dwellings cut out of the cliffs by Buddhist monks. Particularly interesting were two great figures (one 175 ft/53 m high, the other 120 ft/37 m) carved from rock and finished in fine plaster. The statues were destroyed, however, in 2001 by the Taliban, which considered them idolatrous. The area also has grottoes decorated with wall paintings in Greco-Buddhist styles.The Bamian valley is lined with cave dwellings cut out of the cliffs by Buddhist monks. Particularly interesting were two great figures (one 175 ft/53 m high, the other 120 ft/37 m) carved from rock and finished in fine plaster. The statues were destroyed, however, in 2001 by the Taliban, which considered them idolatrous. The area also has grottoes decorated with wall paintings in Greco-Buddhist styles.

Charikar

Charikar is situated in North East Afghanistan. It is noted for its pottery and high-quality grapes. During the 1960s Afghanistan's largest textile factory was built nearby. During the 1979-89 occupation by Soviet forces, the region around Charikar was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting.

Farah

Farah is a town. It is capital of Farah and Chakhansur province which lies in Western Afghanistan, on the Farah River. Surrounded by a solid earth rampart, it is strategically located at the river crossing that controls the road from Herat to the Seistan region and the Indian subcontinent. The town also lies on the Herat-Kandahar trade route and is a market for the products of the surrounding agricultural region. Farah is inhabited mostly by Tajiks. Generally identified with ancient Phrada, it flourished until Mongols destroyed it in 1221. It revived but suffered renewed devastation by the Persian ruler Nadir Shah in 1737. Farah was the scene of fierce fighting during the early days of the Afghanistan War .

Ghazni   

Ghazni city, capital of Ghazni province, lies in  Eastern central Afghanistan, on the Lora River. Located on the Kabul-Kandahar trade route, Ghazni is a market for sheep, wool, camel hair ,cloth, corn, and fruit. The famed Afghan sheepskin coats are made in the city. Most of the inhabitants are Tajiks. The city, named Ghazna in ancient times, was flourishing by the 7th cent. but reached its peak (962-c.1155) under the Turkish Ghaznavid dynasty. Mahmud of Ghazna built a magnificent mosque, the Celestial Bride, there. The kings of Ghor sacked Ghazni in 1149 but later (1173) made it their secondary capital. Ogotai, a son of Jenghiz Khan, completed its downfall in 1221; Mahmud's tomb and two high columns outside the city escaped destruction. In 1747 the city became part of the new kingdom of Afghanistan. Ghazni's strong fortress was taken by the British in 1839 and 1842 during the Afghan Wars. The main city on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, it became a strategic military target during the Afghanistan War . The walled, old city of Ghazni, with its numerous bazaars, contains the ruins of ancient Ghazna.

Maimana

Maimana is located in northern Afghanistan, near the Uzbekistan border. A walled city inhabited mainly by Uzbeks, Maimana is a district administrative center and a market for leather goods, silk, wheat, and barley.

Nuristan 

The region on the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush in North East Afghanistan is called Nuristan. It is  bordered on the east by Pakistan. Formerly called Kafiristan [land of the infidels], it is inhabited by an ethnically distinctive people (numbering about 60,000), who practiced animism until their forcible conversion to Islam in 1895-96. Inhabiting relatively isolated villages in deep, narrow mountain valleys, they grow wheat, barley, millet, peas, wine grapes, and other fruit and raise livestock (chiefly goats). A special artisan caste specializes in woodcarving, pottery making, weaving, and metalwork. The Nuristanis, divided into several tribes, speak Dardic dialects (often mutually unintelligible) belonging to a distinct branch of the Indo-European language family. Nuristan was the scene of some of the heaviest guerrilla fighting during the 1979-89 invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by Soviet forces.

Pul-e-Khumri

Pul-e-Khumri town lies in central Afghanistan. It is a trading center and a stopping place for trucks and caravans traveling to N Afghanistan and the Central Asian Republics.

Shibergan

Shibergan city, located in Northern Afghanistan,  is a market for agricultural produce and Karakul lamb skins and is the site of an ancient citadel.

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