The Khyber Pass in august 1990

The Khyber Pass (also called the Khaiber Pass or Khaybar Pass) (Urdu: درہ خیبر) is the most important pass connecting Pakistan with Afghanistan. Throughout history it has been an important trade route between Central Asia and South Asia and a strategic military location. The actual pass summit is 5 km inside Pakistan at Landi Kotal. The pass cuts through the Safed Koh mountains which are a far southeastern extension of the Hindu Kush range. Going northwest from the eastern end in Pakistan, the pass starts from near Jamrud (15 km west of Peshawar) and ends west of Torkham, Afghanistan, a winding road of 48 km. The route passes Fort Maude and Ali Masjid to reach the narrowest point of the pass, just 15 m wide. The summit is at Landi Kotal, followed by a steep decline to Michni Kandao, Landi Khana and the Afghan border just east of Torkham. Here the gradient becomes easier as the pass exits at Haft Chah onto the Dakka plain. From Dakka, the Kabul River flows back to Peshawar through the Loe Shilman Gorge, a less direct and more difficult route, but the one chosen by Alexander the Great when he crossed over into South Asia in 326 BC in an attempt to invade the Indus Valley. Jamrud is at an elevation of 491 m (1610 feet), while the summit at Landi Kotal is 1070 m (3509 feet). The current road was built by the British through the Pass in 1879 and a railway in the 1920s (the previous railhead was at Jamrud). In some versions of the Aryan migration theory, the Indo-Aryans ...

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Orignal From: The Khyber Pass in august 1990