Geography

Afghanistan is a land-locked and mountainous country in central Asia, with plains in the north and southwest. At 652,090 sq km (249,984 sq mi), Afghanistan is the world's 41st-largest country (after Myanmar/Burma), and is approximately two-and-a-half times the size of the UK.

The country is landlocked and mountainous, containing most of the Hindu Kush. There are four major rivers in the country: Amu Darya, Hari Rud, and the Kabul and Helmand Rivers. There are also several smaller sized rivers and couple of small sized lakes.

Afghanistan has a total of 5,529 km of borders, with the longest being the 2,640 km border on the southeast and south with Pakistan. Afghanistan is also bordered to the west by Iran (936 km) and to the north by the Central Asian states of Tajikistan (1,206 km), Turkmenistan (744 km), and Uzbekistan (137 km). Afghanistan's shortest border is on its eastern frontier with China (76 km).

The country is frequently subject to minor earthquakes, mainly in the northeast of Hindu Kush mountain areas. Large parts of the country are dry, and fresh water supplies are limited.

Mountain Systems

The Hindu Kush reaches a height of 7,485 m (24,557 ft) at Nowshak, Afghanistan's highest peak. Of the ranges extending southwestward from the Hindu Kush, the Koh-i-Baba reaches the greatest height (Shah Fuladi, 5,142 m or 16,870 ft).

The Safed Koh range, which includes the Tora Bora area, dominates the border area southeast of Kabul. The approaches to the Khyber Pass across the Safed Koh are in eastern Afghanistan; the summit of the pass at 1,070 m (3,509 ft) at Landi Kotal - Pakistan is five kilometres east of the border town of Torkham.

Other key passages through the mountainous Pakistan border include two from Paktika Province into Pakistan's Waziristan region: one at Angoor Ada, a village that straddles both sides of the border east of Shkin, and, further south, the Gumal River crossing, plus the Charkai River passage south of Khowst, Afghanistan, at Pakistan's Ghulam Khan village into North Waziristan. The busy Pakistan border crossing at Wesh, just northwest of Chaman, Pakistan, connecting Kandahar and Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, to Quetta, Pakistan, is in a flat, dry area, though this route involves Pakistan's Khojak Pass at 2,707 m - just 14 km from the border.

Other important passes include the Unai Pass across the Sanglakh Range, and the Kotal-e Salang, connecting Kabul with central and northern Afghanistan, respectively.

Natural Resources

The country's natural resources include gold, silver, copper, zinc and iron ore in southeastern areas; precious and semi-precious stones such as lapis, emerald and azure in the north-east; and potentially significant petroleum and natural gas reserves in the north. The country also has coal, chromite, talc, barites, sulphur, lead and salt. However, these significant mineral and energy resources remain largely untapped due to the effects of the Soviet invasion and the subsequent civil war. Plans are underway to begin extracting them in the near future.