Portal:Afghanistan

The Afghanistan Portal

Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, Tajikistan to the northeast, and China to the northeast and east. Occupying 652,864 square kilometers (252,072 sq mi) of land, the country is predominantly mountainous with plains in the north and the southwest, which are separated by the Hindu Kush mountain range. Kabul is the country's capital and largest city. Afghanistan's population is estimated to be between 40 and 50 million.

Human habitation in Afghanistan dates to the Middle Paleolithic era. Popularly referred to as the graveyard of empires, the land has witnessed numerous military campaigns, including those by the Persians, Alexander the Great, the Maurya Empire, Arab Muslims, the Mongols, the British, the Soviet Union, and a US-led coalition. Afghanistan also served as the source from which the Greco-Bactrians and the Mughals, among others, rose to form major empires. Because of the various conquests and periods in both the Iranian and Indian cultural spheres, the area was a center for Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and later Islam. The modern state of Afghanistan began with the Durrani Empire in the 18th century under Ahmad Shah Durrani, although Dost Mohammad Khan is sometimes considered to be the founder of the first modern Afghan state. Afghanistan became a buffer state in the Great Game between the British Empire and the Russian Empire. From India, the British attempted to subjugate Afghanistan but were repelled in the First Anglo-Afghan War; the Second Anglo-Afghan War saw a British victory. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, Afghanistan became free of foreign political hegemony, and emerged as the independent Kingdom of Afghanistan in 1926. This monarchy lasted almost half a century, until Zahir Shah was overthrown in 1973, following which the Republic of Afghanistan was established.

Afghanistan is rich in natural resources, including lithium, iron, zinc, and copper. It is the second-largest producer of cannabis resin, and third largest of both saffron and cashmere. The country is a member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and a founding member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Due to the effects of war in recent decades, the country has dealt with high levels of terrorism, poverty, and child malnutrition. Afghanistan remains among the world's least developed countries, ranking 182nd on the Human Development Index. Afghanistan's gross domestic product (GDP) is $81 billion by purchasing power parity and $20.1 billion by nominal values. Per capita, its GDP is among the lowest of any country as of 2020. (Full article...)

Selected article -

Development of the Afghan Civil War from the Peshawar Accord in April 1992 to the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001

The Afghan conflict (Pashto: دافغانستان جنګونه; Dari: درگیری افغانستان) is the series of events that have kept Afghanistan in a near-continuous state of armed conflict since the 1970s. Early instability followed the collapse of the Kingdom of Afghanistan in the largely non-violent 1973 coup d'état, which deposed Afghan monarch Mohammad Zahir Shah in absentia, ending his 40-year-long reign. With the concurrent establishment of the Republic of Afghanistan, headed by Mohammad Daoud Khan, the country's relatively peaceful and stable period in modern history came to an end. However, all-out fighting did not erupt until after 1978, when the Saur Revolution violently overthrew Khan's government and established the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Subsequent unrest over the radical reforms that were being pushed by the then-ruling People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) led to unprecedented violence, prompting a large-scale pro-PDPA military intervention by the Soviet Union in 1979. In the ensuing Soviet–Afghan War, the anti-Soviet Afghan mujahideen received extensive support from Pakistan, the United States, and Saudi Arabia in a joint covert effort that was dubbed Operation Cyclone.

Although the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the various mujahideen factions continued to fight against the PDPA government, which collapsed in the face of the Peshawar Accord in 1992. However, the Peshawar Accord failed to remain intact in light of the mujahideen's representatives' inability to reach an agreement on a power-sharing coalition for the new government, triggering a multi-sided civil war between them. By 1996, the Taliban, supported by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, had seized the capital city of Kabul in addition to approximately 90% of the country, while northern Afghanistan remained under the authority of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. During this time, the Northern Alliance's Islamic State of Afghanistan enjoyed widespread international recognition and was represented at the United Nations, as opposed to the Taliban's Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which only received diplomatic recognition from three nations. Despite the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, the Northern Alliance continued to resist in another civil war for the next five years. (Full article...)

Did you know? -

General images -

The following are images from various Afghanistan-related articles on Wikipedia.

Religions in Afghanistan

Neighboring countries

Other countries

Selected picture -

Snow-covered mountains outside of the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan

Topics

Recognized content

Good articles

  • 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines - Afghanistan
  • ANA soldier with RPG-7 in 2013-cropped
  • British Army Soldier in Full Kit in Afghanistan MOD 45152579
  • British Army Soldier in Full Kit in Afghanistan MOD 45152581
  • Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II - 32156159151
  • Last American Soldier leaves Afghanistan
  • M777 Light Towed Howitzer 1
  • Meat seller in Kabul
  • Rosette, Titles of Shah Jahan
  • Sher Ali (1825-1879) Amir of Afghanistan, photographed in 1869 by John Burke
  • Stielers Handatlas 1891 59

Categories

Select [►] to view subcategories
Afghanistan
Afghanistan-related lists
Buildings and structures in Afghanistan
Culture of Afghanistan
Economy of Afghanistan
Education in Afghanistan
Environment of Afghanistan
Geography of Afghanistan
Government of Afghanistan
Health in Afghanistan
History of Afghanistan
Organisations based in Afghanistan
Afghan people
Politics of Afghanistan
Society of Afghanistan
Works about Afghanistan
Afghanistan stubs

New articles

This list was generated from these rules. Questions and feedback are always welcome! The search is being run daily with the most recent ~14 days of results. Note: Some articles may not be relevant to this project.

Rules | Match log | Results page (for watching) | Deleted articles| Last updated: 2026-03-15 19:15 (UTC)

Note: The list display can now be customized by each user. See List display personalization for details.

WikiProjects

  • Main WikiProject:
    • WikiProject Afghanistan
  • Other related WikiProjects:
    • Geographical:
      • Central Asia: China • Iran • Kazakhstan • Kyrgyzstan • Pakistan • Russia • Soviet Union • Tajikistan • Tibet • Turkmenistan • Uzbekistan
    • Religious:
      • Islam

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

External media

Sources

Discover Wikipedia using portals

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.