Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a country in Asia.

It has no seaside at all. Tall mountains cross the middle of the country. Some places are dry and sandy. The capital city is called Kabul.

Afghanistan is a country in south-central Asia. It is landlocked, which means it has no coast: the nearest sea, the Arabian Sea, is about 480 kilometers to the south. Its neighbors are Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, and Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to the north. A long, narrow strip of land called the Wakhan Corridor reaches all the way to a short border with China.

The country's shape has been compared to a leaf, with the Wakhan as its stem. Its capital and largest city is Kabul. The World Bank estimated that about 43.8 million people lived in Afghanistan in 2025.

Afghanistan covers about 652,000 square kilometers in the heart of south-central Asia. It is completely landlocked; the nearest coast, on the Arabian Sea, lies about 480 km to the south. Pakistan bounds it to the east and south, Iran to the west, and Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to the north, while the narrow Wakhan Corridor, high in the Pamirs, ends at a short border with Xinjiang, China.

Britannica divides the country into three regions: the central highlands (about 414,000 km²), which include the main Hindu Kush range; the northern plains (about 103,000 km², averaging about 600 m), sloping toward the Amu Darya; and the southwestern plateau (about 130,000 km², averaging about 900 m) of high plateaus, deserts and semideserts. Most of the land lies between 600 and 3,000 m. The World Bank estimate for 2025 was 43,844,111 people, a figure to read with care, since no national census has been held since a partial count in 1979.

Kabul is the biggest city in Afghanistan.

It sits in a valley between mountains. A river runs through it. Far away in the mountains stands a very tall old tower. It is called the Minaret of Jam. It is covered in brick patterns.

Kabul, the capital, is built on both sides of the Kabul River, about 1,800 meters above sea level. For centuries it stood at a crossroads of trade routes between South Asia and Central Asia. Kandahar, the second-largest city, lies in a fertile oasis in the south; in 1747 it became the first capital of modern Afghanistan. In the west, the city of Herat was long a center of learning and of writing in Persian.

The Minaret of Jam rises 65 meters from a deep river valley in the mountains of Ghor province. It was built in 1194 from fired bricks, and its walls are covered with brick patterns and writing in turquoise tiles. UNESCO made it a World Heritage Site in 2002.

Kabul lies in a high basin at about 1,800 m, on both banks of the Kabul River, at the crossroads of routes between the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia and between the Middle East and East Asia; Britannica calls it the main center of economic and cultural activity. Kandahar, second to Kabul in population, stands in a fertile oasis near the Arghandab River and became the first capital of modern Afghanistan in 1747 under Ahmad Shah Durrani. Herat was a noted center of Persian literature and scholarship.

The Minaret of Jam stands at about 1,900 m, far from any town, where the Jam River meets the Hari River. Its four tapering brick shafts rise 65 m from a 9 m octagonal base, covered in geometric relief and a Kufic inscription in turquoise tiles. UNESCO dates it to 1194, under the Ghurid sultan Ghiyas-od-din, and says it probably marks the site of Firuzkuh, the Ghurid summer capital. Archaeologists first recorded the site in 1957; it was inscribed in 2002 and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. UNESCO links its design to the Qutb Minar in Delhi, begun in 1202.

Afghanistan has very high mountains.

The tallest one is called Noshaq. Snow falls in the mountains in winter. In the south there are sandy deserts. Winters are very cold, and summers are hot.

The Hindu Kush mountains run across Afghanistan from northeast to southwest. Some peaks rise above 6,400 meters, and the highest mountain in the country, Noshaq, reaches 7,492 meters. High passes between 3,600 and 4,600 meters let people cross the mountains.

Most of Afghanistan's rivers never reach the sea. They end in inland lakes or dry up in sandy deserts. Only rivers in the east, such as the Kabul River, flow on to the Indus River in Pakistan. Winters are very cold and summers hot: Jalalabad has recorded 49 °C in July, and Kabul has recorded −31 °C. Five small lakes in the Baba Mountains are known for colors from milky white to dark green, caused by the rock beneath them.

The Hindu Kush and its subsidiary ranges give Afghanistan its northeast-southwest grain and divide it into its three regions. Peaks in the central highlands exceed 6,400 m; the highest, Noshaq in the Wakhan, is 7,492 m (UNAMA). Mountains on the eastern frontier shut out moist winds from the Indian Ocean, which Britannica gives as the reason for the dry climate. About 50 earthquakes a year occur in the country, many with epicenters in Badakhshan.

Practically the whole drainage system is enclosed: only eastern rivers, draining 83,000 km², reach the sea through the Kabul River and the Indus. The Amu Darya (2,540 km long) forms about 1,000 km of the border with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; the Helmand (about 1,150 km) ends in salty seasonal lakes in the Sistan depression. The climate is semiarid steppe with cold winters and hot summers. Most precipitation falls from December to April, from 1,350 mm a year at the Salang Pass to 75 mm at Farah. In the high mountains, conifers such as pine and fir, some 55 m tall, grow up to a fir line above 3,000 m.

Snow leopards live high in the mountains.

Wild goats called markhor have long, twisty horns. Brown bears live in the mountains and forests. Big birds called vultures and eagles fly in the sky.

Wolves, foxes, striped hyenas and jackals roam Afghanistan's mountains and foothills. Snow leopards live there too. Wild goats such as the markhor, famous for its long, twisted horns, and the ibex, whose horns curve back, live in the Pamirs. Wild sheep, including the argali, also called the Marco Polo sheep, live in the Pamirs and the Hindu Kush, and brown bears live in the mountains and forests.

Vultures are common, and there are eagles too. In spring and autumn, many migrating birds pass through. Large mammals used to be much more common, and the tiger has disappeared from Afghanistan.

Britannica describes most of the wild animals of the subtropical temperate zone as present in Afghanistan, though large mammals, once abundant, are now greatly reduced and the tiger has disappeared. Wolves, foxes, striped hyenas and jackals roam the mountains and foothills; gazelles, wild dogs and wild cats such as the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) are widespread. The markhor (Capra falconeri), prized for its long, twisted horns, and the ibex live in the Pamirs, and the wild sheep urial and argali (Marco Polo sheep) live in the Pamirs and the Hindu Kush. Brown bears (Ursus arctos) inhabit mountains and forests.

Smaller mammals include mongooses, moles, shrews, hedgehogs, bats and several species of jerboa in isolated, sparsely populated areas. Vultures occur in great numbers along with eagles, and migratory birds abound in spring and fall, alongside pheasants, quail, cranes and pelicans. Rivers on the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush are well stocked with brown trout.

Many different groups of people live in Afghanistan.

Two main languages are Pashto and Dari. Flat bread called naan is baked in a clay oven. Afghan carpets are known all over the world.

Afghanistan is home to many ethnic groups. Britannica's rough estimates are that Pashtuns make up about two-fifths of the people, Tajiks about one-fourth, and Hazara and Uzbeks nearly one-tenth each, with smaller groups such as the Turkmen. Pashto and Dari, a form of Persian, are the official languages, and many people speak two languages.

Almost everyone in Afghanistan is Muslim. The everyday bread is naan, usually flat and oblong and baked in an earthen oven. Traditional dishes include rice pilaf, roast meats, stewed vegetables and a thick noodle soup called ash, with yogurt sauces and fresh fruit. Afghan carpets and copper utensils are world-famous handicrafts.

Britannica calls the population a complex mosaic of ethnic and linguistic groups and warns that, with no full census and years of displacement, ethnic shares are rough approximations: Pashtuns about two-fifths, Tajiks about one-fourth, Hazara and Uzbeks nearly one-tenth each. Pashto and Dari (Persian), both Indo-European, are official; more than two-fifths speak Pashto and about half a dialect of Persian. Uzbek, Turkmen and Kyrgyz are Turkic languages, and Brahui, spoken in the far south, is Dravidian. Virtually all Afghans are Muslims, about four-fifths of them Sunni, with Shi'i minorities and a few thousand Hindus and Sikhs. Only about one-fourth of the population is urban.

Herat was a center of Persian literature, the poet Rumi was born in Balkh in the 13th century, and Khushhal Khan Khatak founded Pashto literature in the 17th. UN News reported in August 2026 that, five years after the Taliban seized power, an estimated 2.4 million girls remained excluded from secondary education, and UNESCO said Afghanistan is the only country in the world to formally prohibit education for girls and women beyond the primary level.