Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in South-Central Asia. Afghanistan is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east; Iran in the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north; and in the far northeast, China. Its territory covers 652,000 square kilometers (252,000 sq mi) and much of it is covered by the Hindu Kush mountain range, which experiences very cold winters. The north consists of fertile plains, while the south-west consists of deserts where temperatures can get very hot in summers. Kabul serves as the capital and its largest city.
Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, located in the eastern section of the country. It is also a municipality, forming part of the greater Kabul Province. According to estimates in 2015, the population of Kabul is 4.635 million, which includes all the major ethnic groups of Afghanistan. Rapid urbanization had made Kabul the world's 75th largest city.
The Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years, from December 1979 to February 1989. Insurgent groups known collectively as the mujahideen, as well as smaller Maoist groups, fought a guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government, mostly in the rural countryside. The mujahideen groups were backed primarily by the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, making it a Cold War proxy war. Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran.
The Buddhas of Bamyan were two 6th-century monumental statues of Gautam Buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, 230 kilometres (140 mi) northwest of Kabul at an elevation of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft). Built in 507 CE (smaller) and 554 CE (larger), the statues represented the classic blended style of Gandhara art. They were respectively 35 and 53 m tall.
The National Museum of Afghanistan, also known as the Kabul Museum, is a two-story building located 9 km southwest of the center of Kabul in Afghanistan. As of 2014, the museum is under major expansion according to international standards, with a larger size adjoining garden for visitors to relax and walk around. The museum was once considered to be one of the world's finest.
The Guimet Museum is an art museum located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. It has one of the largest collections abroad of Asian art.
Buddhism in Afghanistan was one of the major religious forces in the region during pre-Islamic era. The religion was widespread south of the Hindu Kush mountains. Buddhism first arrived in Afghanistan in 305 BC when the Greek Seleucid Empire made an alliance with the Indian Maurya Empire. The resulting Greco-Buddhism flourished under the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the later Indo-Greek Kingdom in modern northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. Greco-Buddhism reached its height under the Kushan Empire, which used the Greek alphabet to write its Bactrian language.
TOLO is a commercial television station operated by MOBY Group in Afghanistan. Launched in 2004, it became one of the first commercial stations in the country and laid the foundation for an accessible media outlet by offering a large library of shows. It is a Dari-language channel and is currently Afghanistan's most popular television channel.
Tillya tepe, Tillia tepe or Tillā tapa or is an archaeological site in the northern Afghanistan province of Jowzjan near Sheberghan, excavated in 1978 by a Soviet-Afghan team led by the Greek-Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi, a year before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The hoard is often known as the Bactrian gold.
Noreen Motamed is an Iranian-American artist and painter, residing in Maryland.
The War in Afghanistan, code named Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan (2001–14) and Operation Freedom's Sentinel (2015–present), followed the United States invasion of Afghanistan of 7 October 2001. The U.S. was initially supported by the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia and later by a coalition of over 40 countries, including all NATO members. The war's public aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power. Since the initial objectives were completed at the end of 2001, the war mostly involves U.S. and allied Afghan government troops battling Taliban insurgents. The War in Afghanistan is the longest war in U.S. history.
The tourism industry of Afghanistan, developed with government help in the early 1970s, is gradually reviving after the decades of war. A valid passport with visa is required for entrance into Afghanistan. In 1999, the United Nations estimated the daily cost of staying in Kabul at $70 USD.
Diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and Japan were officially established in 1931, although early contacts date back to 1907 when the Afghan general Ayub Khan, who defeated the British in Maiwand, visited Japan.
Mawlawi Shahzada Shahid was elected to represent Kunar Province in Afghanistan's Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of its National Legislature, in 2005.
Opium in Iran is widely available, and the country was thought to have the highest per capita number of opiate addicts in the world at a rate of 2.8% of Iranians over age 15. The Iranian government estimates the number of addicts at 2 million. Opium and heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan—known collectively as the Golden Crescent—pass through Iran's eastern borders in large amounts. Total annual opium intercepts by the Iranian authorities are larger than in any other country, but the government admits that they can only intercept a tiny proportion of the thousands of tonnes that are trafficked through Iran every year. Opium costs far less in Iran than in the West, and is even cheaper than beer. In Zahedan, an Iranian town near the Pakistani border, 3 grams of opium can be purchased for 10,000 Iranian rials, equivalent to $1 USD, and 1 kg costs the equivalent of $330. In Zabol, $1 buys 5 grams of Afghan opium. According to official Iranian government reports, within Tehran the daily consumption of opium is 4 metric tons. According to UNODC estimates, 450 metric tons of opium are consumed in Iran each year.
The Museum of Islamic Art is a museum located in Ghazni, Afghanistan. It is located in Rauza, a suburb of Ghazni. The museum was first opened by the Italian Archaeological Mission in 1966 in the restored sixteenth-century Mausoleum of Abd al-Razzaq to display artifacts of the Islamic period. Work was halted during the war with the Soviet Union after 1979 in which several of its artifacts were damaged. It was since been restored in 2004-2007. A number of artifacts unearthed in the Ghazni area are also found in museums in Kabul.
Golra Sharif Junction railway station is located on Golra road in Islamabad, The federal capital of the Pakistan. There is also Golra Sharif Railway Museum at this station.
Towlid-e Rang Bamdad is a village in Qarah Bagh Rural District, in the Central District of Shiraz County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its existence was noted, but its population was not reported.
Omid Nezami is an Afghan singer, reporter and TV presenter at TOLO TV channel. He has anchored a variety of shows on Afghanistan′s television including Afghan Star and Bamdad khosh.
