34 Facts About Kandahar

Kandahar is one of the most culturally significant cities of the Pashtuns and has been their traditional seat of power for more than 300 years.

Ernst Herzfeld claimed Kandahar perpetuated the name of the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares, who re-founded the city under the name Gundopharron.

Excavations of prehistoric sites by archaeologists such as Louis Dupree and others suggest that the region around Kandahar is one of the oldest human settlements known so far.

British excavations in the 1970s discovered that Kandahar existed as a large fortified city during the early 1st millennium BC; while this earliest period at Kandahar has not been precisely dated via radiocarbon, ceramic comparisons with the latest period at the major Bronze Age city of Mundigak have suggested an approximate time-frame of 1000 to 750 BC.

Now "Old Kandahar" was founded in 330 BC by Alexander the Great, near the site of the ancient city of Mundigak.

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Kandahar was named Alexandria, a name given to cities that Alexander founded during his conquests.

Kandahar has been a frequent target for conquest because of its strategic location in Asia, controlling the main trade route linking the Indian subcontinent with the Middle East and Central Asia.

Kandahar was taken by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century followed by the Ghurids of Ghor.

Kandahar appears to have been renamed Teginabad in the 10th-12th centuries, but the origin of the new name is unclear.

However, Kandahar was of much more strategic importance, to the extent that Minhaj-i-Siraj attributes the downfall of the Ghaznavids to the loss of Kandahar.

Kandahar was besieged by a Mongol army in 1221, although Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu defeated them.

Kandahar was described by Ibn Battuta in 1333 as a large and prosperous town three nights journey from Ghazni.

Kandahar appointed his grandson Pir Muhammad as governor of Kandahar in 1390.

Kandahar was entrusted to the Arghuns in the late 15th century, who eventually achieved independence from the Timurids.

Kandahar was regarded as important to the Mughal Empire because it was one of the gateways to India, and Mughal control over Kandahar helped to prevent foreign intrusions.

Memory of the wars fought over Kandahar at this time is preserved in the epic poem Qandahar-nama, a major work of Saib Tabrizi which is a classic of Persian literature.

In 1738, Nader Shah invaded Afghanistan and destroyed the now Old Kandahar, which was held by Hussain Hotak and his Ghilji tribes.

From 1818 to 1855, Kandahar was ruled by half-brothers of Dost Mohammad Khan as an independent principality.

Kandahar remained peaceful for the next 100 years, except during 1929 when loyalists of Habibullah Kalakani placed the fortified city on lock-down and began torturing its population.

Kandahar fell into the hands of Sherzai, who had control over the area before the rise of the Taliban.

Kandahar was transferred in 2003 and replaced by Yousef Pashtun until Asadullah Khalid took the post in 2005.

Kandahar was appointed by President Hamid Karzai in December 2008 after Rahmatullah Raufi's four-month rule.

The 205th Corps of the Afghan National Army is based at Kandahar and provides military assistance to the south of the country.

The Canadian Forces maintain their military command headquarters at Kandahar, heading the Regional Command South of the NATO led International Security Assistance Force in Kandahar Province.

In Spring 2010, the province and the city of Kandahar became a target of American operations following Operation Moshtarak in the neighbouring Helmand Province.

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On 4 May 2020, a policewoman was assassinated in the centre of Kandahar, making her the fifth policewoman to be killed during the previous two months in Kandahar.

Kandahar is the regional hub in southern Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan.

Kandahar has a hot desert climate, characterised by little precipitation and high variation between summer and winter temperatures.

Kandahar is connected by road to Quetta in neighbouring Pakistan.

Kandahar has a population of approximately 1, 057, 500 people in 2008.

Kandahar has a population of 79, 949 people in the winter and 39, 082 people in the summer.

Kandahar Museum is located at the western end of the third block of buildings lining the main road east of Eidgah Durwaza.

The rugged cliffs from which the Chilzina was hewn form the natural western bastion of the Old City of Kandahar, which was destroyed in 1738 by Nadir Shah Afshar of Persia.

Kandahar was a Muslim pir who had a strange encounter with Guru Nanak at Hasan Abdal in what is Attock District of Pakistan.