:Khawak Pass
{{short description|Mountain pass in Afghanistan}}
{{Infobox mountain pass
|name=Khawak Pass
|photo=Mountain passes of Afghanistan2.png
|photo_caption=Mountain passes of Afghanistan
| map = Afghanistan
| map_alt =
| map_caption =
| map_relief =
| map_size =
|elevation_m=4370
|traversed=
|location=Afghanistan
|range=Hindu Kush
|coordinates = {{coord|35|39|47.1|N|69|47|14.1|E|region:AF_type:pass_source:GNS-enwiki}}
|topo =
}}
Khawak Pass (elevation {{convert|3848|m|abbr=on}}) sits across the route heading to the northwest from near the head of the Panjshir Valley through the Hindu Kush range to northern Afghanistan via Andarab and Baghlan.Hill (2009), pp. 560, 563.
This is the route traditionally thought to have been followed by Alexander the Great in the spring of 329 BCE when he led his army from the Kabul Valley across the mountains to Bactria (later Tokharistan in the north). Vincent Smith states that Alexander took his troops across both the Khāwak and the Kaoshān or Kushan Pass.Smith (1914), p. [https://archive.org/stream/earlyhistoryofin00smit#page/49/mode/1up 49]. According to some scholars, there is no proof of this.Vogelsang (2002), p. 9, n. 16; Hill (2009), pp. 564, 563
The Khāwak is most probably the pass used by the famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim monk, Xuanzang, on his return from India to China in the early 7th century.Vogelsang (2002), p. 174.Wood (1872), p. [https://archive.org/stream/ajourneytosourc00yulegoog#page/n70/mode/1up lxiv] (Xuanzang written as Hwen Thsang); {{harvnb|Yule|1913|p=[https://archive.org/stream/cathaywaythither04yule#page/258 258]}} (Xuanzang written as Hiuen Tsang) In 1333, the Moroccan explorer and traveler Ibn Battuta crossed the pass on his journey to India. When dictating his account over twenty years later he remembered spreading felt cloth in front of his camels to prevent them sinking into the snow.{{harvnb|Defrémery|Sanguinetti|1855|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=w_YHAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA84 84-85]}}; {{harvnb|Gibb|1971|pp=586–587}}; {{harvnb|Dunn|2005|p=178}}
The Khāwak was also crossed by Timur (1336–1405), and by Captain John Wood on his return journey to the sources of the Oxus in the mid-19th century. It was the easternmost pass leading from the Kabul Valley into northern Afghanistan, and the most popular pass of this region.Verma (1978), pp. 86 and nn. 155, 156; 264.
This pass, so important for the early history of Afghanistan, is now for the most part bypassed by the paved road that runs through the Salang tunnel under the Salang Pass, completed by the Soviets in 1964, at an elevation of about {{convert|3400|m|abbr=on}}. It links Charikar and Kabul with Kunduz, Khulm, Mazari Sharif and Termez.
Climate
Khawak pass is a high mountain pass at an altitude of {{convert|3848|m}} above sea level and the climate is extremely harsh.
According to the Köppen climate classification, the pass has a tundra climate (ET) with cold to bitterly cold weather year-round.
{{Weather box
|location = Khawak Pass (1988-2017)
|metric first = yes
|single line = yes
|Jan mean C = −23.7
|Feb mean C = −21.2
|Mar mean C = -14.8
|Apr mean C = -7.8
|May mean C = -3.0
|Jun mean C = 1.4
|Jul mean C = 3.7
|Aug mean C = 2.8
|Sep mean C = -1.5
|Oct mean C = -7.6
|Nov mean C = -14.8
|Dec mean C = −21.2
|precipitation colour= green
|Jan precipitation mm = 68.4
|Feb precipitation mm = 99.8
|Mar precipitation mm = 98.6
|Apr precipitation mm = 93.8
|May precipitation mm = 64.7
|Jun precipitation mm = 24.8
|Jul precipitation mm = 20.7
|Aug precipitation mm = 19.4
|Sep precipitation mm = 12.9
|Oct precipitation mm = 30.8
|Nov precipitation mm = 40.6
|Dec precipitation mm = 48.3
{{cite web
|url=https://climatecharts.net/
|access-date = 3 March 2022}}}}
Footnotes
{{Reflist}}
References
- {{cite book | last1 = Defrémery | first1 = C. | last2 = Sanguinetti | first2 = B.R. trans. and eds. | title = Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah (Volume 3) | publisher = Société Asiatic | year = 1855 | place = Paris | language=French, Arabic | url=https://archive.org/details/voyagesdibnbato03sanggoog }}
- {{cite book | last = Dunn | first = Ross E. | author-link=Ross E. Dunn | title = The Adventures of Ibn Battuta | publisher = University of California Press | year = 2005 | isbn=0-520-24385-4 }}
- {{cite book | last = Gibb | first = H.A.R. trans. and ed. | title = The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325–1354 (Volume 3) | place = London | year = 1971 | publisher = Hakluyt Society }}
- {{ cite book | last=Hill | first=John E. | year=2009 | title=Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd centuries CE | publisher=BookSurge | place=Charleston, South Carolina | isbn=978-1-4392-2134-1 }}
- {{cite book | last=Smith | first=Vincent A. | author-link=Vincent Arthur Smith | year=1914 | title=The Early History of India from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan conquest including the invasion of Alexander the Great | edition=3rd | place=Oxford | publisher=Clarendon Press | url=https://archive.org/stream/earlyhistoryofin00smit#page/n5/mode/2up }}
- {{ cite book | last=Verma | first=H. C. | year=1978 | title=Medieval Routes to India: Baghdad to Delhi | place=Calcutta | publisher=Naya Prokash | oclc=5220013 }}
- {{cite book | last=Vogelsang | first=Willem | author-link=Willem Vogelsang | year=2002 | title=The Afghans | publisher=Blackwell Publishers | place=Oxford | isbn=978-063119841-3 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/afghans00voge }}
- {{cite book | last=Wood | first=John | author-link=John Wood (explorer) | year=1872 | title=A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus. With an essay on the Geography of the Valley of the Oxus by Colonel Henry Yule | place=London | publisher=John Murray | url=https://archive.org/stream/ajourneytosourc00yulegoog#page/n8/mode/2up }}
- {{cite book | last=Yule | first=Henry | author-link=Henry Yule | year=1913 | title=Cathay and the way thither being a collection of medieval notices of China. Volume 4 | publisher=Hakluyt Society | place=London | url=https://archive.org/stream/cathaywaythither04yule }}
{{Baghlan Province}}
{{Authority control}}