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In which country is Kabul located?
Kabul is the capital of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and has about 3.9 million inhabitants (as of 2018). It is Afghanistan’s largest city and the economic and cultural center of the country. Kabul is located near the Khyber Pass, an important link between Pakistan and India.
Kabul was first mentioned around 500 BC. The Arabs took the city in the 7th century AD, Islamization finally began in the 11th century. In 1979, the Soviet Union occupied the city, 17 years later the Taliban captured Kabul and proclaimed an Islamic state. After they withdrew from the city in November 2001, the Northern Alliance took over Kabul.
Afghanistan is a country in Asia. It is located between Iran and Pakistan and has no access to the sea itself. It is almost twice as big as Germany, but has only half as many inhabitants. The capital is Kabul. About three million people live there, about as many as in Berlin. This means that about one in ten Afghans lives in the capital.
Almost half of the Afghans are Pashtuns. They used to be called Afghans, that’s why the country has the name. Pashto is a separate language related to Persian. Many other inhabitants are called Tajiks. Most of them speak Persian. Pashto and Persian are the official national languages today. Almost all the inhabitants are Muslims.
The country has a very eventful history. Several times it came under foreign rule or at least under foreign influence. The last government of Afghanistan was supported by the United States and other countries. These countries also had troops in Afghanistan, mainly for the defeat of the Taliban. In the summer of 2021, after these troops withdrew, the Taliban recaptured the whole country in a short time.
Afghanistan is entering its twentieth year of war. Hardly any other country in the world has been in a permanent state of war for such a long time. In the course of this war, the entire country was bombed into rubble and ashes; 1.5 million people lost their lives. Other consequences of the war are the legacy of over 10 million anti-personnel mines, an illiteracy rate of over 90% and the flight of up to 6.5 million of the 14 million inhabitants of Afghanistan to Pakistan and Iran.
Afghanistan is twice the size of Germany in terms of area, but only an estimated 35 million people live there. Three quarters of the population live in the countryside, only 25 percent in the cities.
There are only a few major cities: the capital Kabul has over four million inhabitants, Herat, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad and Kunduz more than 100,000.
About three quarters of the country consists of mountains, some of which are very difficult to access. The climatic zones correspond to those from the cold Scandinavia to the scorching heat of the Sahara. There is a constant shortage of water and at the same time floods.
Is Kabul a safe city?
Is Kabul safe for tourists?
Where is Kabul Pakistan?
