Afghanistan is shaped roughly like a clenched fist with the thumb of the Vakhan Corridor extended out to the northeast. Afghanistan covers an area of 652,225 sq km (251,825 sq mi). Its maximum length from east to west is about 1,240 km (about 770 mi); from north to south it is about 1,015 km (about 630 mi). The northwestern, western, and southern border areas are primarily desert plains and rocky ranges, whereas the southeast and northeast borders rise progressively higher into the major, glacier-covered peaks of the Hindu Kush an extension of the western Himalayas. The northern border is formed by the Amu Darya river and its tributary, the Panj.
Towering mountains cover much of Afghanistan, with about one-half of the land over 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in elevation. White glaciers and year-round snowfields are common. The highest peak, Nowshak (Noshaq), rises 7,485 m (24,557 ft) on the northeast border and is a lower spur of the Tirich Mir peak in Pakistan. The Hindu Kush range reaches across the country in a southwesterly direction from the Vakhan Corridor almost to the Iranian border. From the Hindu Kush, other smaller ranges radiate in all directions. Some of the important mountain systems include the Pamirs in the upper northeast of the Vakhan Corridor, the Badakhshan Ranges in the northeast, the Paropamisus Range in the north, and the Safad Koh range, which forms part of the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Lowland areas are grouped in the south and west and include the Turkistan Plains, the Herat-Ferah Lowlands of the extreme northwest, the Sistan Basin and Helmand River valley of the southwest, and the Rigestan Desert of the south.
With the exception of the river valleys and a few places in the lowlands where underground fresh water makes irrigation possible, agriculture is extremely difficult. Only 12 percent of the land is cultivated. Moreover, a unfortunate war with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the 1980s and the subsequent civil war in the 1990s left some of that land unusable because of neglect, the planting of explosive mines, and other problems. Mostly sheep and goat grazing make up the main agricultural land use. In eastern and southeastern Afghanistan, forest lands amounted to 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres), or 2 percent of the country's land area in 1995. The terrible ravages of war, the extreme scarcity of fuel, and the need for firewood for cooking and heating have caused rapid deforestation.
Location: Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran
Area: total: 652,000 sq km land: 652,000 sq km water: 0 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Texas
Land boundaries: total: 5,529 km border countries: China 76 km, Iran 936 km, Pakistan 2,430 km, Tajikistan 1,206 km, Turkmenistan 744 km, Uzbekistan 137 km
Climate: arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Amu Darya 258 m highest point: Nowshak 7,485 m
Natural resources: natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones
Land use: arable land: 12% permanent crops: 0% permanent pastures: 46% forests and woodland: 3% other: 39% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 30,000 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains; flooding
Environment - current issues: soil degradation; overgrazing; deforestation (much of the remaining forests are being cut down for fuel and building materials); desertification
Geography - note: landlocked
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