CountryGuide

President: Hamid Karzai

Total area: 647,500 sq km

 Language: Pashto and Dari
Population (2010est.): 29,121,286

Capital and largest city:Kabul, 2,206,300

Other large cities:Kandahar

Afghanistan bordered on the north by Turkmenistan on the east and south by Pakistan on the west by Iran and south by Pakistan
The country is split east to west by the Hindu Kush mountain range rising in the east to heights of 24,000
most of the country is covered by high snow-capped mountains and is traversed by deep valleys
Government:In June 2002 a multiparty republic replaced an interim government that had been established in Dec. 2001, following the fall of the Islamic Taliban government

History:Darius I and Alexander the Great were the first to use Afghanistan as the gateway to India. Islamic conquerors arrived in the 7th century, and Genghis Khan and Tamerlane followed in the 13th and 14th centuries.