Hindu Kush

The earliest known usage of the Persian name Hindu Kush occurs on a map published about 1000 CE.Fosco Maraini et al., [https://www.britannica.com/place/Hindu-Kush Hindu Kush], Encyclopædia Britannica Some modern scholars remove the space and refer to the mountain range as Hindukush.{{cite book|author1=Karl Jettmar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ig8ngEACAAJ|title=The Religions of the Hindukush: The religion of the Kafirs|author2-link=Schuyler Jones|author2=Schuyler Jones|publisher=Aris & Phillips|year=1986|isbn=978-0-85668-163-9}}{{cite journal|last1=Winiger|first1=M.|last2=Gumpert|first2=M.|last3=Yamout|first3=H.|year=2005|title=Karakorum-Hindukush-western Himalaya: assessing high-altitude water resources|journal=Hydrological Processes|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|volume=19|issue=12|pages=2329–2338|bibcode=2005HyPr...19.2329W|doi=10.1002/hyp.5887|s2cid=130210677 }}

Hindu Kush is generally translated as "Killer of Hindu"{{Cite book|last=|first=|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=usbRAAAAMAAJ&q=%22hindu+kush%22+%22killer+of+hindus%22|title=The National Geographic Magazine|date=1958|publisher=National Geographic Society|isbn=|location=|pages=|language=en|quote=Such bitter journeys gave the range its name, Hindu Kush – "Killer of Hindus."}}{{Cite book|last=Metha|first=Arun|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X0IwAQAAIAAJ&q=%22hindu+kush%22+%22killer+of+hindus%22|title=History of medieval India|date=2004|publisher=ABD Publishers|isbn=9788185771953|location=|pages=|language=en|quote=of the Shahis from Kabul to behind the Hindu Kush mountains (Hindu Kush is literally 'killer of Hindus'}}{{cite book|author=R. W. McColl|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DJgnebGbAB8C&pg=PA413|title=Encyclopedia of World Geography|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year=2014|isbn=978-0-8160-7229-3|pages=413–414}}{{cite journal|last=Allan|first=Nigel|year=2001|title=Defining Place and People in Afghanistan|journal=Post-Soviet Geography and Economics|series=8|volume=42|issue=8|page=546|doi=10.1080/10889388.2001.10641186|s2cid=152546226}}{{Cite book|last=Runion|first=Meredith L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EY6NDgAAQBAJ&q=%22hindu+kush%22+%22killer+of+hindus%22&pg=PA4|title=The History of Afghanistan|edition=2nd|date=2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-778-1|location=|pages=|language=en|quote=The literal translation of the name “Hindu Kush” is a true reflection of its forbidding topography, as this difficult and jagged section of Afghanistan translates to "Killer of Hindus."}}{{Cite book|last=Weston|first=Christine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFDhAAAAMAAJ&q=%22hindu+kush%22+%22hindu+killers%22|title=Afghanistan|date=1962|publisher=Scribner|isbn=|location=|pages=|language=en|quote=To the north and northeast, magnificent and frightening, stretched the mountains of the Hindu Kush, or Hindu Killers, a name derived from the fact that in ancient times slaves brought from India perished here like flies from exposure and cold.}}{{Cite book|last=Knox|first=Barbara|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vzPswhHQAH0C&q=%22hindu+kush%22+%22killer+of+hindus%22&pg=PA4|title=Afghanistan|date=2004|publisher=Capstone|isbn=978-0-7368-2448-4|location=|pages=|language=en|quote=Hindu Kush means 'killer of Hindus.' Many people have died trying to cross these mountains.}} or "Hindu-Killer" by most writers.[a] {{cite book|author=Michael Franzak|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KqenaOE0ziIC&pg=PA241|title=A Nightmare's Prayer: A Marine Harrier Pilot's War in Afghanistan|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=2010|isbn=978-1-4391-9499-7|page=241}};

[b] {{cite book|author=Ehsan Yarshater|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ulYOAQAAMAAJ|title=Encyclopædia Iranica|publisher=The Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation|year=2003|isbn=978-0-933273-76-4|page=312}}

[c] {{cite book|author=James Wynbrandt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQGwgJnCPZgC|title=A Brief History of Pakistan|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year=2009|isbn=978-0-8160-6184-6|page=5}};

[d] {{cite book|title=Encyclopedia Americana|year=1993|volume=14|page=206}};

[e] {{cite book|author=André Wink|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC&pg=PA110|title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th–11th Centuries|publisher=Brill Academic|year=2002|isbn=978-0-391-04173-8|page=110}}, Quote: "(..) the Muslim Arabs also applied the name 'Khurasan' to all the Muslim provinces to the east of the Great Desert and up to the Hindu-Kush ('Hindu killer') mountains, the Chinese desert and the Pamir mountains".{{Cite book|last=Runion|first=Meredith L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EY6NDgAAQBAJ&q=%22hindu+kush%22+%22killer+of+hindus%22&pg=PA4|title=The History of Afghanistan|edition=2nd|date=2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-778-1|language=en|quote=The literal translation of the name “Hindu Kush” is a true reflection of its forbidding topography, as this difficult and jagged section of Afghanistan translates to “Killer of Hindus.”}}{{Cite book|last=Weston|first=Christine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFDhAAAAMAAJ&q=%22hindu+kush%22+%22hindu+killers%22|title=Afghanistan|date=1962|publisher=Scribner|language=en|quote=To the north and northeast, magnificent and frightening, stretched the mountains of the Hindu Kush, or Hindu Killers, a name derived from the fact that in ancient times slaves brought from India perished here like flies from exposure and cold.}}{{Cite book|last=Knox|first=Barbara|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vzPswhHQAH0C&q=%22hindu+kush%22+%22killer+of+hindus%22&pg=PA4|title=Afghanistan|date=2004|publisher=Capstone|isbn=978-0-7368-2448-4|language=en|quote=Hindu Kush means "killer of Hindus." Many people have died trying to cross these mountains.}}{{cite book|title=The World Book Encyclopedia|publisher=World Book Inc.|year=1990|edition=1994|volume=9|page=235}} Boyle's Persian–English dictionary indicates that the Persian suffix -koš {{IPA|fa|koʃ|}} is the present stem of the verb 'to kill' (koštan {{nastaliq|کشتن}}).{{cite book|last=Boyle|first=J.A.|title=A Practical Dictionary of the Persian Language|publisher=Luzac & Co.|year=1949|page=129}} According to linguist Francis Joseph Steingass, the suffix -kush means "a male; (imp. of kushtan in comp.) a killer, who kills, slays, murders, oppresses as azhdaha-kush ['dragon-slayer']."

The earliest explanation offered for the name comes from Ibn Battuta. According to him, Hindu Kush means Hindu Killer as slaves from the Indian subcontinent died in the harsh climatic conditions of the mountains while being taken to Turkestan by traders. Yet others suggest that the name may be derived from ancient Avestan, meaning 'water mountain' with Kush probably being a corruption of the Persian word kuh ('mountain').Ervin Grötzbach (2012 Ed., Original: 2003), [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hindu-kush Hindu Kush], Encyclopædia Iranica{{Cite book|last=Dunn|first=Ross E.|title=The Adventures of Ibn Battuta|publisher=University of California Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-520-24385-9|pages=171–178|author-link=Ross E. Dunn}}{{cite book|author=André Wink|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC&pg=PA110|title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th–11th Centuries|publisher=Brill Academic|year=2002|isbn=978-0-391-04173-8|page=110}}, Quote: "(..) the Muslim Arabs also applied the name 'Khurasan' to all the Muslim provinces to the east of the Great Desert and up to the Hindu-Kush ('Hindu killer') mountains, the Chinese desert and the Pamir mountains".{{Cite book |surname1=Tranter, Tranter |first1=Nigel , Philip |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/No_Tigers_in_the_Hindu_Kush/WriCBxu_-8AC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=kush+meaning+kuh+in+persian&pg=PT13&printsec=frontcover |title=

No Tigers in the Hindu Kush |date=December 20, 2012 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |isbn=9781444768947 |pages=13 |language=en}}{{efn|Boyle's Persian-English dictionary indicates that the suffix -koš {{IPA|fa|koʃ|}} is the present stem of the verb 'to kill' (koštan {{nastaliq|کشتن}}). According to linguist Francis Joseph Steingass, the suffix -kush means 'a male; (imp. of kushtan in comp.) a killer, who kills, slays, murders, oppresses as azhdaha-kush.'}}

According to Hobson-Jobson, a 19th-century British dictionary, Hindukush might be a corruption of the ancient Latin Indicus (Caucasus); the entry mentions the interpretation first given by Ibn Battuta as a popular theory already at that time, despite doubts cast upon it.{{cite book|author=Henry Yule|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F51h6q-bB6sC&pg=PA258|title=Hobson-Jobson: The Definitive Glossary of British India|author2=A. C. Burnell|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199601134|editor=Kate Teltscher|page=258}}

In Vedic Sanskrit, the range was known as upariśaina, and in Avestan, as upāirisaēna (from Proto-Iranian *upārisaina- 'covered with juniper').{{cite book|last=Thapar|first=Romila|title=Which of Us are Aryans?: Rethinking the Concept of Our Origins|date=2019|publisher=Aleph|isbn=978-93-88292-38-2|pages=1|author-link=Romila Thapar}}{{cite web |last=Schmitt |first=Rüdiger |date=2007|title=Iškata|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iskata|website=Encyclopaedia Iranica}} It can alternatively be interpreted as "beyond the reach of eagles".{{cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Arlo |title=The Vedas: Texts, Language & Ritual |publisher=Egbert Forsten |publication-place=Groningen |year=2004 |isbn=90-6980-149-3 |oclc=57477186 |page=594 |url=https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~rnoyer/courses/51/Witzel2002.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730063254/http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~rnoyer/courses/51/Witzel2002.pdf |archive-date=2012-07-30 |url-status=live}}

In the time of Alexander the Great, the mountain range was referred to as the Caucasus Indicus (as opposed to the Greater Caucasus range between the Caspian and Black Seas), and the extension of the former as Paropamisos (see Paropamisadae) by Hellenic Greeks in the late first millennium BCE.{{cite book|last1=Vogelsang|first1=Willem|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9kfJ6MlMsJQC&pg=PA1|title=The Afghans|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2002|isbn=978-0-631-19841-3|access-date=22 August 2010}}

Some 19th-century encyclopedias and gazetteers state that the term Hindu Kush originally applied only to the peak in the area of the Kushan Pass, which had become a center of the Kushan Empire by the first century.[1890] 1896 Encyclopædia Britannica s.v. "Afghanistan", Vol. I p. 228.;
[1893] 1899 Johnson's Universal Encyclopedia Vol. I p. 61.;
1885 Imperial Gazetteer of India, VoI. p. 30.
1850 A Gazetteer of the World Vol. I p. 62.

File:Naw shakh.jpg is the second highest independent peak of the Hindu Kush Range after Tirich Mir.]]

File:T-62 tank abandoned in Afghanistan.jpg tank in the foreground]]

File:Flight to Mazar over Hindu Kush.jpg

File:Swat (6).jpg valley, Pakistan]]

File:Chitraas, Wama, Nuristan, Afghanistan - panoramio.jpg in Afghanistan]]

File:Ishkashim populus and the Hindu Kush (9) (31895374700).jpg]]

The range forms the western section of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region (HKH) and is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram and the Himalayas. It divides the valley of the Amu Darya (the ancient Oxus) to the north from the Indus River valley to the south. The range has numerous high snow-capped peaks, with the highest point being Tirich Mir or Terichmir at {{convert|7708|m}} in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. To the north, near its northeastern end, the Hindu Kush buttresses the Pamir Mountains near the point where the borders of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, after which it runs southwest through Pakistan and into Afghanistan near their border. The eastern end of the Hindu Kush in the north merges with the Karakoram Range. Towards its southern end, it connects with the Spin Ghar Range near the Kabul River.

Many peaks of the range are between {{cvt|14500|and|17000|ft|order=flip}}; however, some are much higher, with an average peak height of {{convert|4500|m|ft|abbr=off}}. The mountains of the Hindu Kush range diminish in height as they stretch westward. Near Kabul, in the west, they attain heights of {{convert|3500|to|4,000|m|ft}}; in the east they extend from {{convert|4500|to|6,000|m|ft}}.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}

{{#invoke:Mountains Prism|list|m|rank,name,elev,prom,fa,country

|7708^Tirich Mir^

|7492^Noshaq

|7403^Istor-o-Nal

|7338^Saraghrar

|7140^Udren Zom

|7084^Kohe Shakhawr@qid:Q20190942

|6901^Lunkho e Dosare

|6843^Kuh-e Bandaka

|6755^Koh-e Keshni Khan

|6272^Sakar Sar

|6234^Kohe Mondi

}}

Numerous high passes ("kotal") transect the mountains, forming a strategically important network for the transit of caravans. The most important mountain pass in Afghanistan is the Salang Pass (Kotal-e Salang) ({{cvt|3878|m|disp=or||}}) north of Kabul, which links southern Afghanistan to northern Afghanistan. The Salang Tunnel at {{cvt|3363|m|||}} and the extensive network of galleries on the approach roads was constructed with Soviet financial and technological assistance and involved drilling {{cvt|1.7|mi|order=flip||}} through the heart of the Hindu Kush; since the start of the wars in Afghanistan it has been an active area of armed conflict with various parties trying to control the strategic tunnel.{{cite book|author=John Laffin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_BncAAAAMAAJ|title=The World in Conflict: War Annual 8 : Contemporary Warfare Described and Analysed|publisher=Brassey's|year=1997|isbn=978-1-85753-216-6|pages=24–25}} The range has several other passes in Afghanistan, the lowest of which is the southern Shibar pass ({{cvt|9000|ft|disp=or||order=flip}}) where the Hindu Kush range terminates.

Before the Salang Tunnel, another feat of engineering was the road constructed through the Tang-e Gharu gorge near Kabul, replacing the ancient Lataband Pass and greatly reducing travel time towards the Pakistani border at the Khyber Pass.

Other mountain passes are at altitudes of about {{cvt|12000|ft|||order=flip}} or higher, including the Broghil Pass at 12,460 feet in Pakistan,{{Cite book|last=Burrard|first=Sir Sidney Gerald|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nw7lAAAAMAAJ&q=hindu+kush+geology&pg=PA101|title=A Sketch of the Geography and Geology of the Himalaya Mountains and Tibet|date=1908|publisher=Superintendent government printing, India|pages=102|language=en}} and the Dorah Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan at 14,000 feet. Other high passes in Pakistan include the Lowari Pass at 10,200 feet,{{Cite book|last=Authority|first=West Pakistan Water and Power Development|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yUWvID3e9agC&q=lowari+pass+elevation|title=WAPDA Annual Report|date=1971|publisher=The Authority.|language=en}} the Gomal Pass. The Darmodar Aghost Pass is at elevation of {{cvt|14341|ft|||order=flip}}. The Ishkoman Aghost Pass is at elevation of {{cvt|15049|ft|||order=flip}}.

The Hindu Kush form the boundary between the Indus watershed in South Asia, and Amu Darya watershed in Central Asia.{{Cite book|last1=Ahmad|first1=Masood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eWiReSL6D6YC&q=hindu+kush+amu+darya+indus+helmand&pg=PA9|title=Water Resource Development in Northern Afghanistan and Its Implications for Amu Darya Basin|last2=Wasiq|first2=Mahwash|date=2004|publisher=World Bank Publications|isbn=978-0-8213-5890-0|pages=9|language=en}} Melt water from snow and ice feeds major river systems in Central Asia: the Amu Darya (which feeds the Aral Sea), Helmand River (which is a major source of water for the Sistan Basin in southern Afghanistan and Iran), and the Kabul River{{Snd}}the last of which is a major tributary of the Indus River. Smaller rivers with headwaters in the range include the Khash, the Farah and the Arashkan (Harut) rivers. The basins of these rivers serve the ecology and economy of the region, but the water flow in these rivers greatly fluctuates, and reliance on these has been a historical problem with extended droughts being commonplace.[http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/sistan.pdf History of Environmental Change in the Sistan Basin], UNEP, United Nations, pp. 5, 12–14 The eastern end of the range, with the highest peaks, high snow accumulation allows to long-term water storage.{{Cite book|last1=Ahmad|first1=Masood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eWiReSL6D6YC&q=hindu+kush+amu+darya+indus+helmand&pg=PA9|title=Water Resource Development in Northern Afghanistan and Its Implications for Amu Darya Basin|last2=Wasiq|first2=Mahwash|date=2004|publisher=World Bank Publications|isbn=978-0-8213-5890-0|language=en}}

Geologically, the range is rooted in the formation of the subcontinent from a region of Gondwana that drifted away from East Africa about 160 million years ago, around the Middle Jurassic period.{{cite book|author=Robert Wynn Jones|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mrPiq_8pkAwC&pg=PA267|title=Applications of Palaeontology: Techniques and Case Studies|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-139-49920-0|pages=267–271}}{{cite journal|last1=Hinsbergen|first1=D. J. J. van|last2=Lippert|first2=P. C.|last3=Dupont-Nivet|first3=G.|last4=McQuarrie|first4=N.|last5=Doubrovine|display-authors=etal|year=2012|title=Greater India Basin hypothesis and a two-stage Cenozoic collision between India and Asia|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=109|issue=20|pages=7659–7664, for geologic Indian subcontinent see Figure 1|bibcode=2012PNAS..109.7659V|doi=10.1073/pnas.1117262109|pmc=3356651|pmid=22547792|doi-access=free}} The Indian subcontinent, Australia and islands of the Indian Ocean rifted further, drifting northeastwards, with the Indian subcontinent colliding with the Eurasian Plate nearly 55 million years ago, towards the end of Palaeocene. This collision gradually formed the Himalayas, including the Hindu Kush.{{cite book|author1=S. Mukherjee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hwN7CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA55|title=Tectonics of the Himalaya|author2=R. Carosi|author3=P.A. van der Beek|publisher=Geological Society of London|year=2015|isbn=978-1-86239-703-3|pages=55–57|display-authors=etal}}

The Hindu Kush are a part of the "young Eurasian mountain range consisting of metamorphic rocks such as schist, gneiss and marble, as well as of intrusives such as granite, diorite of different age and size". The northern regions of the Hindu Kush witness Himalayan winter and have glaciers, while its southeastern end witnesses the fringe of Indian subcontinent summer monsoons.{{cite book|author=Ehsan Yarshater|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/hindu-kush|title=Encyclopædia Iranica|publisher=The Encyclopaedia Iranica Foundation|year=2003|isbn=978-0-933273-76-4|page=312}}

The Hindu Kush range remains geologically active and is still rising;{{cite book|author=Martin Beniston|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fBiIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA320|title=Mountain Environments in Changing Climates|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=978-1-134-85236-9|page=320}} it is prone to earthquakes.{{cite book|author=Frank Clements|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bv4hzxpo424C&pg=PA109|title=Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2003|isbn=978-1-85109-402-8|pages=90–91}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20151029005803/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151026-afghanistan-pakistan-deep-earthquake-faults-geology/ Afghanistan Pakistan Earthquake] National Geographic;
[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36009407 Afghanistan earthquake] BBC News; See also October 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake and 2016 Afghanistan earthquake. The Hindu Kush system stretches about {{convert|966|km|mi}} laterally,{{Cite book|last1=Scott-Macnab|first1=David|title=On the roof of the world|publisher=Reader's Digest Association Ldt.|year=1994|location=London|page=22}} and its median north–south measurement is about {{convert|240|km|mi}}. The mountains are orographically described in several parts. Peaks in the western Hindu Kush rise to over {{cvt|5100|m|||}} and stretch between Darra-ye Sekari and the Shibar Pass in the west and the Khawak Pass in the east. The central Hindu Kush peaks rise to over {{cvt|6800|m|||}}, and this section has numerous spurs between the Khawak Pass in the east and the Durāh Pass in the west. In 2005 and 2015 there were some major earthquakes.

The eastern Hindu Kush, also known as the "High Hindu Kush", is mostly located in northern Pakistan and the Nuristan and Badakhshan provinces of Afghanistan with peaks over {{cvt|7000|m|||}}. This section extends from the Durāh Pass to the Baroghil Pass at the border between northeastern Afghanistan and north Pakistan. The Chitral District of Pakistan is home to Tirich Mir, Noshaq, and Istoro Nal{{Snd}}the highest peaks in the Hindu Kush. The ridges between Khawak Pass and Badakshan is over {{cvt|5800|m|||}} and are called the Kaja Mohammed range.

File:A land cover map of the HKH region was developed using Landsat 30-meter data..png was developed using Landsat 30-meter data.{{Citation|last1=Uddin|first1=Kabir|title=Regional Land Cover Monitoring System for Hindu Kush Himalaya|date=2021|work=Earth Observation Science and Applications for Risk Reduction and Enhanced Resilience in Hindu Kush Himalaya Region: A Decade of Experience from SERVIR|pages=103–125|editor-last=Bajracharya|editor-first=Birendra|place=Cham|publisher=Springer International Publishing|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-73569-2_6|isbn=978-3-030-73569-2|last2=Matin|first2=Mir A.|last3=Khanal|first3=Nishanta|last4=Maharjan|first4=Sajana|last5=Bajracharya|first5=Birendra|last6=Tenneson|first6=Karis|last7=Poortinga|first7=Ate|last8=Quyen|first8=Nguyen Hanh|last9=Aryal|first9=Raja Ram|s2cid=238902124|editor2-last=Thapa|editor2-first=Rajesh Bahadur|editor3-last=Matin|editor3-first=Mir A.|doi-access=free}}]]

ICIMOD's first annual regional 30-meter resolution land cover database of HKH generated using public domain Landsat images demonstrated that grassland was the most dominant land cover, followed by barren land, which includes areas with bare areas. In 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015, grassland covered 37.2%, 37.6%, 38.7%, and 38.2%, respectively, of the total area of the HKH region. During the same years, the second dominant land cover was barren areas, including bare soil and bare rock. In 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015, bare soil and bare rock covered 32.1, 31.4, 30.4, and 30.7%. The cropland cover in 2000 was about 5.1% and about 5.4% in 2015. Snow and glacier areas covered about 4% of the high-elevation section in 2018, while waterbodies and riverbeds/channels together accounted for 2%. The weather conditions also have an impact on the land cover patterns across the regions. In the HKH, forest cover is mostly distributed in the south and south-eastern areas, where precipitation is more; the grasslands are mostly distributed in the north and north-western parts, while cropland is mostly found in the southern part of the region.

The mountainous areas of Hindu Kush range are mostly barren or, at the most, sparsely sprinkled with trees and stunted bushes. From about {{cvt|1300|to|2300|m|}}, states Yarshater, "sclerophyllous forests are predominant with Quercus and Olea (wild olive); above that, up to a height of about {{cvt|3300|m|||}} one finds coniferous forests with Cedrus, Picea, Abies, Pinus, and junipers". The inner valleys of the Hindu Kush see little rain and have desert vegetation. On the other hand, Eastern Himalaya is home to multiple biodiversity hotspots, and 353 new species (242 plants, 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, two birds, two mammals and 61+ invertebrates) have been discovered there in between 1998 and 2008, with an average of 35 new species finds every year. With Eastern Himalaya included, the entire Hindu Kush Himalaya region is home to an estimated 35,000+ species of plants and 200+ species of animals.

File:Mountains of Kabul.jpg, situated {{convert|5900|ft|m}} above sea level in a narrow valley, wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains]]

The high altitudes of the mountains have historical significance in South and Central Asia. The Hindu Kush range was a major center of Buddhism with sites such as the Bamiyan Buddhas. It has also been the passageway during the invasions of the Indian subcontinent, a region where the Taliban and al-Qaeda grew,{{cite journal | last=Magnus | first=Ralph H. | title=Afghanistan in 1997: The War Moves North | journal=Asian Survey | publisher=University of California Press | volume=38 | issue=2 | year=1998 | pages=109–115 | doi=10.2307/2645667 | jstor=2645667 }} and a scene of modern era warfare in Afghanistan. Ancient mines producing lapis lazuli are found in Kowkcheh Valley, while gem-grade emeralds are found north of Kabul in the valley of the Panjsher River and some of its tributaries. According to Walter Schumann, the West Hindu Kush mountains have been the source of the finest Lapis lazuli for thousands of years.{{cite book|author=Walter Schumann|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V9PqVxpxeiEC&pg=PA188|title=Gemstones of the World|publisher=Sterling|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4027-6829-3|page=188}}

{{multiple image

| direction = vertical

| align = left

| footer = Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 1896 (top) and after destruction in 2001 by the Taliban.{{cite book|author=Jan Goldman |title=The War on Terror Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bjeaBAAAQBAJ | year= 2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-61069-511-4|pages=360–362}}

| image1 = Nouvelle géographie universelle - la terre et les hommes (1876) (14592652167).jpg

| alt1 = Buddha statue in 1896, Bamiyan

| image2 = Destroyed Statue, July 17, 2005 at 15-53.jpg

| alt2 = After statue destroyed by Islamist Taliban in 2001

}}

Buddhism was widespread in the ancient Hindu Kush region. The ancient artwork of Buddhism includes the giant rock-carved statues called the Bamiyan Buddhas, in the southern and western end of the Hindu Kush.Deborah Klimburg-Salter (1989), The Kingdom of Bamiyan: Buddhist art and culture of the Hindu Kush, Naples – Rome: Istituto Universitario Orientale & Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, {{ISBN|978-0877737650}} (Reprinted by Shambala) These statues were destroyed by Taliban Islamists in 2001. The southeastern valleys of Hindu Kush connecting towards the Indus Valley region were a major center that hosted monasteries, religious scholars from distant lands, trade networks and merchants of the ancient Indian subcontinent.{{cite book|author=Jason Neelis|title=Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GB-JV2eOr2UC |year=2010|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-90-04-18159-5|pages=114–115, 144, 160–163, 170–176, 249–250}}

One of the early Buddhist schools, the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda, was prominent in the area of Bamiyan. The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Lokottaravāda monastery in the 7th century CE, at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Birchbark and palm leaf manuscripts of texts in this monastery's collection, including Mahāyāna sūtras, have been discovered in the caves of Hindu Kush,[http://www.schoyencollection.com/22-buddhism-collection/22-7-various-buddhist-literature/asoka-legend-ms-2379-44 ASOKA MUKHANAGAVINAYAPARICCHEDA], The Schoyen Collection, Quote: "Provenance: 1. Buddhist monastery of Mahasanghika, Bamiyan, Afghanistan (−7th c.); 2. Cave in Hindu Kush, Bamiyan." and these are now a part of the Schøyen Collection. Some manuscripts are in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script, while others are in Sanskrit and written in forms of the Gupta script.{{cite web|url=http://www.schoyencollection.com/buddhism.html|title=Schøyen Collection: Buddhism|access-date=23 June 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre67g1cn-us-afghanistan-buddhist-relics/ |title=Afghan archaeologists find Buddhist site as war rages |access-date=16 August 2010 |work=Sayed Salahuddin |publisher=News Daily |date=17 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100818151642/http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre67g1cn-us-afghanistan-buddhist-relics/ |archive-date=18 August 2010 }}

According to Alfred Foucher, the Hindu Kush and nearby regions gradually converted to Buddhism by the 1st century CE, and this region was the base from where Buddhism crossed the Hindu Kush expanding into the Oxus valley region of Central Asia.{{cite book|author=Jason Neelis|title=Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GB-JV2eOr2UC |year=2010|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-90-04-18159-5|pages=234–235}} Buddhism later disappeared and locals were forced to convert to Islam. Richard Bulliet also proposes that the area north of Hindu Kush was center of a new sect that had spread as far as Kurdistan, remaining in existence until the Abbasid times.{{cite journal | author=Sheila Canby | title=Depictions of Buddha Sakyamuni in the Jami al-Tavarikh and the Majma al-Tavarikh | journal=Muqarnas | volume=10 | year=1993 | pages=299–310 | doi=10.2307/1523195 | jstor=1523195 }}{{cite book|author=Michael Jerryson|title=The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1MljDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA464 |year=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-936239-4|page=464}} The area eventually came under the control of the Hindu Shahi dynasty of Kabul.The History and Culture of the Indian People: The struggle for empire. 2nd ed., p. 3 The Islamic conquest of the area happened under Sabuktigin who conquered Jayapala's dominion west of Peshawar in the 10th century.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0IquM4BrJ4YC&q=sabuktigin+hindu+kush&pg=PT351 | title=India: A History| isbn=9780802195500| last1=Keay| first1=John| date=2011| publisher=Open Road + Grove/Atlantic}}

The significance of the Hindu Kush mountain ranges has been recorded since the time of Darius I of the Achaemenid Empire. Alexander entered the Indian subcontinent through the Hindu Kush as his army moved past the Afghan Valleys in the spring of 329 BCE.{{cite book|author=Peter Marsden|title=The Taliban: War, Religion and the New Order in Afghanistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xghveVap2rYC&pg=PA12|year=1998|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-85649-522-6|page=12}} He moved towards the Indus Valley river region in the Indian subcontinent in 327 BCE;_his armies built several towns in this region over the intervening two years.{{cite book|author=Peter Marsden|title=The Taliban: War, Religion and the New Order in Afghanistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xghveVap2rYC&pg=PA12|year=1998|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-85649-522-6|pages=1–2}}

After Alexander died in 323 BCE, the region became part of the Seleucid Empire, according to the ancient history of Strabo written in the 1st century BCE, before it became a part of the Indian Maurya Empire around 305 BCE.{{Cite web|url=http://www.aisk.org/aisk/NHDAHGTK05.php |title=An Historical Guide to Kabul – The Name |author=Nancy Hatch Dupree / Aḥmad ʻAlī Kuhzād |publisher=American International School of Kabul |year=1972 |access-date=18 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100830031416/http://www.aisk.org/aisk/NHDAHGTK05.php |archive-date=30 August 2010 }} The region became a part of the Kushan Empire around the start of the common era.{{Cite book|title=E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936|last1=Houtsma|first1=Martijn Theodoor|volume=2|year=1987|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-08265-6|page=159|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zJU3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA159 |access-date=23 August 2010}}

The lands north of the Hindu Kush, in the Hephthalite dominion, Buddhism was the predominant religion by mid 1st millennium CE. These Buddhists were religiously tolerant and they co-existed with followers of Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Nestorian Christianity.{{cite book|author=M. A. Shaban|title=The 'Abbāsid Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1_03AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA8| year=1979| publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-29534-5| pages=8–9}} This Central Asia region along the Hindu Kush was taken over by Western Turks and Arabs by the eighth century, facing wars with mostly Iranians.{{cite book|author=André Wink|title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th–11th Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC |year=2002|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-0-391-04173-8|pages=110–111}} One major exception was the period in the mid to late seventh century when the Tang dynasty from China destroyed the Northern Turks and extended its rule all the way to the Oxus River valley and regions of Central Asia bordering all along the Hindu Kush.{{cite book|author=André Wink|title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th–11th Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC |year=2002|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-0-391-04173-8|pages=114–115}}

File:BactriaMap.jpg

The subcontinent and valleys of the Hindu Kush remained unconquered by the Islamic armies until the 9th century, even though they had conquered the southern regions of the Indus River valley such as Sind.{{cite book|author=André Wink|title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th–11th Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC |year=2002|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-0-391-04173-8|pages=9–10, 123}} Kabul fell to the army of Al-Ma'mun, the seventh Abbasid caliph, in 808 and the local king agreed to accept Islam and pay annual tributes to the caliph. However, states André Wink, inscriptional evidence suggests that the Kabul area near Hindu Kush had an early presence of Islam.{{cite book|author=André Wink|title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th–11th Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2m7_R5P2oAC |year=2002|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-0-391-04173-8|page=124}} When the extraction of silver from the mines in the Hindu Kush was at its greatest (c.850), the value of silver in relation to gold dropped, and the content of silver in the Carolingian denarius was increased so that it should maintain its intrinsic value.{{Cite book|last=Ralph Henry Carless|first=Davis|title=A History of Medieval Europe – From Constantine to Saint Louis|publisher=A Longman Paperback |year=1957|isbn=0582482089|location=Great Britain|pages=183–184}}

The range came under the control of the Hindu Shahi dynasty of Kabul but was conquered by Sabuktigin who took all of Jayapala's dominion west of Peshawar.

Mahmud of Ghazni came to power in 998 CE, in Ghazna, Afghanistan, south of Kabul and the Hindu Kush range.{{cite book|author1=Hermann Kulke|author2=Dietmar Rothermund|title=A History of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TPVq3ykHyH4C&pg=PA164 |year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-32919-4|pages=164–165}} He began a military campaign that rapidly brought both sides of the Hindu Kush range under his rule. From his mountainous Afghani base, he systematically raided and plundered kingdoms in north India from east of the Indus river to west of Yamuna river seventeen times between 997 and 1030.{{cite book|author=Peter Jackson|title=The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lt2tqOpVRKgC|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-54329-3|pages=3–4, 6–7}}

Mahmud of Ghazni raided the treasuries of kingdoms, sacked cities, and destroyed Hindu temples, with each campaign starting every spring, but he and his army returned to Ghazni and the Hindu Kush base before monsoons arrived in the northwestern part of the subcontinent. He retracted each time, only extending Islamic rule into western Punjab.T. A. Heathcote, The Military in British India: The Development of British Forces in South Asia:1600–1947, (Manchester University Press, 1995), pp. 5–7Barnett, Lionel (1999), {{Google books|LnoREHdzxt8C|Antiquities of India: An Account of the History and Culture of Ancient Hindustan|page=1}}, Atlantic pp. 73–79

In 1017, the Iranian Islamic historian Al-Biruni was deported after a war that Mahmud of Ghazni won,[http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0007/000748/074875eo.pdf Al-Biruni] Bobojan Gafurov (June 1974), The Courier Journal, UNESCO, p. 13 to the northwest Indian subcontinent under Mahmud's rule. Al Biruni stayed in the region for about fifteen years, learnt Sanskrit, and translated many Indian texts, and wrote about Indian society, culture, sciences, and religion in Persian and Arabic. He stayed for some time in the Hindu Kush region, particularly near Kabul. In 1019, he recorded and described a solar eclipse in what is the modern era Laghman Province of Afghanistan through which Hindu Kush pass. Al Biruni also wrote about early history of the Hindu Kush region and Kabul kings, who ruled the region long before he arrived, but this history is inconsistent with other records available from that era. Al Biruni was supported by Sultan Mahmud. Al Biruni found it difficult to get access to Indian literature locally in the Hindu Kush area, and to explain this he wrote, "Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed wonderful exploits by which the Hindus became the atoms scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. (...) This is the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far from those parts of the country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot yet reach, to Kashmir, Benares and other places".{{cite book|author1=William J. Duiker|author2=Jackson J. Spielvogel|title=The Essential World History, Vol. I: To 1800 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z9DMjtWoJKoC |year=2013|publisher=Cengage |isbn=978-1-133-60772-4|page=228}}

In the late 12th century, the historically influential Ghurid empire led by Mu'izz al-Din ruled the Hindu Kush region.{{cite book|author=K.A. Nizami|title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=18eABeokpjEC&pg=PA186| year=1998| publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-92-3-103467-1|page=186}} He was influential in seeding the Delhi Sultanate, shifting the base of his Sultanate from south of the Hindu Kush range and Ghazni towards the Yamuna River and Delhi. He thus helped bring Islamic rule to the northern plains of the Indian subcontinent.{{cite book|author=Peter Jackson|title=The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lt2tqOpVRKgC |year=2003| publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-54329-3|pages=7–15, 24–27}} In the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire, Genghis Khan invaded the region from the northeast in one of his many conquests to create the huge Mongol Empire.

File:Caubul, from a burying gorund on the mountain ridge, north-east of the city LCCN2016647841 (cropped).jpg

The Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta arrived in the Delhi Sultanate by passing through the Hindu Kush. The mountain passes of the Hindu Kush range were used by Timur and his army and they crossed to launch the 1398 invasion of the northern Indian subcontinent.{{cite book|author=Francis Robinson|title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fz5kgjMDnOIC&pg=PA56|year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-66993-1|page=56}} Timur, also known as Temur or Tamerlane in Western scholarly literature, marched with his army to Delhi, plundering and killing all the way.{{cite book|author=Peter Jackson|title=The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lt2tqOpVRKgC|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-54329-3|pages=311–319}}{{cite encyclopedia | title=Tīmūr Lang | encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam | publisher=Brill | author=Beatrice F. Manz |editor1=P. J. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C. E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W. P. Heinrichs | year=2000 | volume=10 | edition=2nd}}{{cite book|author=Annemarie Schimmel|title=Islam in the Indian Subcontinent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYImm1TnemwC|year=1980|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-06117-0|pages=36–44}} He arrived in the capital Delhi with his army.{{cite book|author1=Hermann Kulke|author2=Dietmar Rothermund|title=A History of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TPVq3ykHyH4C|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-32919-4|page=178}} Then he carried the wealth and the captured slaves, returning to his capital through the Hindu Kush.{{cite book|author=Paddy Docherty|title=The Khyber Pass: A History of Empire and Invasion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oSbovvxLlWgC&pg=PA160|year=2007|publisher=London: Union Square|isbn=978-1-4027-5696-2|pages=160–162}}

Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, was a patrilineal descendant of Timur with roots in Central Asia.{{cite book|author1=Gerhard Bowering|author2=Patricia Crone|author3=Wadad Kadi|display-authors=etal|title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHcZlo12SGoC&pg=PA60 |year=2012|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0691134840|page=60}} He first established himself and his army in Kabul and the Hindu Kush region. In 1526, he made his move into north India, and won the Battle of Panipat, ending the last Delhi Sultanate dynasty, and starting the era of the Mughals.{{cite book|author1=Scott Cameron Levi|author2=Muzaffar Alam|title=India and Central Asia: Commerce and Culture, 1500–1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DkMAQAAMAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-568647-0|pages=19–20}}

Slavery, as with all major ancient and medieval societies, has been a part of Central Asia and South Asia history. The Hindu Kush mountain passes connected the slave markets of Central Asia with slaves seized in South Asia.Scott C. Levi (2002), Hindus beyond the Hindu Kush: Indians in the Central Asian Slave Trade, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Cambridge University Press, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Nov. 2002), pp. 277–288{{cite book|author1=Scott Cameron Levi|author2=Muzaffar Alam|title=India and Central Asia: Commerce and Culture, 1500–1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DkMAQAAMAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-568647-0|pages=11–12, 43–49, 86 note 7, 87 note 18}} The seizure and transportation of slaves from the Indian subcontinent became intense in and after the 8th century CE, with evidence suggesting that the slave transport involved "hundreds of thousands" of slaves from India in different periods of Islamic rule era.{{cite book|author=Christoph Witzenrath|title=Eurasian Slavery, Ransom and Abolition in World History, 1200–1860 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7LG1CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 |year=2016| publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-14002-3|pages=10–11 with footnotes}} According to John Coatsworth and others, the slave trading operations during the pre-Akbar Mughal and Delhi Sultanate era "sent thousands of Hindus every year north to Central Asia to pay for horses and other goods".{{cite book|author1=John Coatsworth|author2=Juan Cole|author3=Michael P. Hanagan|display-authors=etal|title=Global Connections: Vol. 2, Since 1500: Politics, Exchange, and Social Life in World History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHfmBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA18|year=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-29790-2|page=18}}According to Clarence-Smith, the practice was curtailed but continued during Akbar's era, and returned after Akbar's death; {{cite book|author=W. G. Clarence-Smith|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQbylEdqJKkC&pg=PA90|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-522151-0|pages=90–91}} However, the interaction between Central Asia and South Asia through the Hindu Kush was not limited to slavery, it included trading in food, goods, horses and weapons.{{cite book|author1=Scott Cameron Levi|author2=Muzaffar Alam|title=India and Central Asia: Commerce and Culture, 1500–1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DkMAQAAMAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-568647-0|pages=9–10, 53, 126, 160–161}}

The practice of raiding tribes, hunting, and kidnapping people for slave trading continued through the 19th century, at an extensive scale, around the Hindu Kush. According to a British Anti-Slavery Society report of 1874, the governor of Faizabad, Mir Ghulam Bey, kept 8,000 horses and cavalrymen who routinely captured non-Muslims as well as Shia Muslims as slaves. Others alleged to be involved in the slave trade were feudal lords such as Ameer Sheer Ali. The isolated communities in the Hindu Kush were one of the targets of these slave-hunting expeditions.{{cite book|author=Junius P. Rodriguez|title=Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXysBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA666 |year=2015| publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-47180-6|pages=666–667}}

File:The Last Stand, by William Barnes Wollen (1898).jpg, during the 1842 retreat from Kabul]]

The people of Kafiristan had practiced ancient polytheistic traditions until the 1896 invasion and conversion to Islam at the hands of Afghans under Amir Abdur Rahman Khan.

British era

The Hindu Kush served as a geographical barrier to the British Empire, leading to a paucity of information and scarce direct interaction between the British colonial officials and Central Asian peoples. The British had to rely on tribal chiefs, Sadozai and Barakzai noblemen for information, and they generally downplayed the reports of slavery and other violence for geo-political strategic considerations.{{cite book|author=Jonathan L. Lee|title=The 'Ancient Supremacy': Bukhara, Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh, 1731–1901|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYaamE_3kD4C&pg=PA74|year=1996|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-90-04-10399-3|page=74 with footnote}} The first British invasion of Afghanistan ended in disaster in 1842, when 16,000 British soldiers and camp followers were massacred as they retreated through the Hindu Kush back to India.{{cite news |last1=Stewart |first1=Terry |title=Britain's Retreat from Kabul 1842 |url=https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Britains-Retreat-From-Kabul-1842/ |work=Historic UK}}

After 1947

In the colonial era, the Hindu Kush was considered, informally, the dividing line between Russian and British areas of influence in Afghanistan. During the Cold War the Hindu Kush range became a strategic theatre, especially during the 1980s when Soviet forces and their Afghan allies fought the Afghan mujahideen channelled through Pakistan.{{cite book|author=Mohammed Kakar|title=Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979–1982|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QyTmFj5tUGsC&pg=PA130 |year=1995|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-91914-3|pages=130–133}}{{cite book|author1=Scott Gates|author2=Kaushik Roy|title=Unconventional Warfare in South Asia: Shadow Warriors and Counterinsurgency|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5sSXCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA142|year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-00541-4|pages=142–144}}{{cite book|author=Mark Silinsky|author-link=Mark Silinsky|title=The Taliban: Afghanistan's Most Lethal Insurgents |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yciUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |year=2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-39898-8|pages=6–7}} After the Soviet withdrawal and the end of the Cold War, many mujahideen morphed into Taliban and al-Qaeda forces imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic law (Sharia), with Kabul, these mountains, and other parts of Afghanistan as their base.{{cite book|author=Mark Silinsky|title=The Taliban: Afghanistan's Most Lethal Insurgents |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yciUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |year=2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-39898-8|pages=8, 37–39, 81–82}}{{cite book|author=Nicola Barber|title=Changing World: Afghanistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZsLBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA15|year=2015|publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica|isbn=978-1-62513-318-2|page=15}} Other Mujahideen joined the Northern Alliance to oppose the Taliban rule.

After the 11 September 2001 terror attacks in New York City and Washington D.C., the American and ISAF campaign against Al Qaeda and their Taliban allies made the Hindu Kush once again a militarised conflict zone.[http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP18/short-march-hindu-kush-ed-darack A Short March to the Hindu Kush] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203080628/http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP18/short-march-hindu-kush-ed-darack |date=3 February 2020 }}, Alpinist 18.{{Cite web |url=https://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander_t16.html |title=Alexander in the Hindu Kush |publisher=Livius. Articles on Ancient History |access-date=12 September 2007 |archive-date=30 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930203829/http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander_t16.html |url-status=dead }}

File:HKH-Glacier-Mass-Change.png

The 2019 Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment{{Cite book |last1=Wester |first1=Philippus |last2=Mishra |first2=Arabinda |last3=Mukherji |first3=Aditi |last4=Shrestha |first4=Arun Bhakta |year=2019 |title=The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment: Mountains, Climate Change, Sustainability and People |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1 |isbn=978-3-319-92288-1 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1 |s2cid=199491088 }} }} concluded that between 1901 and 2014, the Hindu Kush Himalaya (or HKH) region had already experienced warming of 0.1 °C per decade, with the warming rate accelerating to 0.2 °C per decade over the past 50 years. Over the past 50 years, the frequency of warm days and nights had also increased by 1.2 days and 1.7 nights per decade, while the frequency of extreme warm days and nights had increased by 1.26 days and 2.54 nights per decade. There was also a corresponding decline of 0.5 cold days, 0.85 extreme cold days, 1 cold night, and 2.4 extreme cold nights per decade. The length of the growing season has increased by 4.25 days per decade.

There is less conclusive evidence of light precipitation becoming less frequent while heavy precipitation became both more frequent and more intense. Finally, since 1970s glaciers have retreated everywhere in the region beside Karakoram, eastern Pamir, and western Kunlun, where there has been an unexpected increase in snowfall. Glacier retreat had been followed by an increase in the number of glacial lakes, some of which may be prone to dangerous floods.{{Cite book |last1=Krishnan |first1=Raghavan |last2=Shrestha |first2=Arun Bhakta |last3=Ren |first3=Guoyu |last4=Rajbhandari |first4=Rupak |last5=Saeed |first5=Sajjad |last6=Sanjay |first6=Jayanarayanan |last7=Syed |first7=Md. Abu. |last8=Vellore |first8=Ramesh |last9=Xu |first9=Ying |last10=You |first10=Qinglong |last11=Ren |first11=Yuyu |title=The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment |date= 2019 |chapter=Unravelling Climate Change in the Hindu Kush Himalaya: Rapid Warming in the Mountains and Increasing Extremes |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1_3 |pages=57–97 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1_3 |isbn=978-3-319-92287-4 |s2cid=134572569 }}

In the future, if the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5 °C of global warming is not exceeded, warming in the HKH will be at least 0.3 °C higher, and at least 0.7 °C higher in the hotspots of northwest Himalaya and Karakoram. If the Paris Agreement goals are broken, then the region is expected to warm by 1.7–2.4 °C in the near future (2036–2065) and by 2.2–3.3 °C (2066–2095) near the end of the century under the "intermediate" Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5).

Under the high-warming RCP8.5 scenario where the annual emissions continue to increase for the rest of the century, the expected regional warming is 2.3–3.2 °C and 4.2–6.5 °C, respectively. Under all scenarios, winters will warm more than the summers, and the Tibetan Plateau, the central Himalayan Range, and the Karakoram will continue to warm more than the rest of the region. Climate change will also lead to the degradation of up to 81% of the region's permafrost by the end of the century.

Future precipitation is projected to increase as well, but CMIP5 models struggle to make specific projections due to the region's topography: the most certain finding is that the monsoon precipitation in the region will increase by 4–12% in the near future and by 4–25% in the long term. There has also been modelling of the changes in snow cover, but it is limited to the end of century under the RCP 8.5 scenario: it projects declines of 30–50% in the Indus Basin, 50–60% in the Ganges basin, and 50–70% in the Brahmaputra Basin, as the snowline elevation in these regions will rise by between 4.4 and 10.0 m/yr. There has been more extensive modelling of glacier trends: it is projected that one third of all glaciers in the extended HKH region will be lost by 2100 even if the warming is limited to 1.5 °C (with over half of that loss in the Eastern Himalaya region), while RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 are likely to lead to the losses of 50% and >67% of the region's glaciers over the same timeframe.

Glacier melt is projected to accelerate regional river flows until the amount of meltwater peaks around 2060, going into an irreversible decline afterwards. Since precipitation will continue to increase even as the glacier meltwater contribution declines, annual river flows are only expected to diminish in the western basins where contribution from the monsoon is low: however, irrigation and hydropower generation would still have to adjust to greater interannual variability and lower pre-monsoon flows in all of the region's rivers.{{cite web |date=4 February 2019 |author=Damian Carrington |title=A third of Himalayan ice cap doomed, finds report |website=TheGuardian.com |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/04/a-third-of-himalayan-ice-cap-doomed-finds-shocking-report |access-date=20 October 2022}}{{Cite book |last1=Bolch |first1=Tobias |last2=Shea |first2=Joseph M. |last3=Liu |first3=Shiyin |last4=Azam |first4=Farooq M. |last5=Gao |first5=Yang |last6=Gruber |first6=Stephan |last7=Immerzeel |first7=Walter W. |last8=Kulkarni |first8=Anil |last9=Li |first9=Huilin |last10=Tahir |first10=Adnan A. |last11=Zhang |first11=Guoqing |last12=Zhang |first12=Yinsheng |title=The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment |date=5 January 2019 |chapter=Status and Change of the Cryosphere in the Extended Hindu Kush Himalaya Region |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1_3 |pages=209–255 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1_7 |isbn=978-3-319-92287-4 |s2cid=134814572 }}{{Cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Christopher A. |last2=Zhang |first2=Fan |last3=Mukherji |first3=Aditi |last4=Immerzeel |first4=Walter |last5=Mustafa |first5=Daanish |last6=Bharati |first6=Luna |title=The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment |date=5 January 2019 |chapter=Water in the Hindu Kush Himalaya |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1_8 |pages=257–299 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1_8 |isbn=978-3-319-92287-4 |s2cid=133800578 }}

A range of adaptation efforts are already undertaken across the HKH region: however, they suffer from underinvestment and insufficient coordination between the various state, institutional and other non-state efforts, and need to be "urgently" strengthened in order to be commensurate with the challenges ahead.{{Cite book |last1=Mishra |first1=Arabinda |last2=Appadurai |first2=Arivudai Nambi |last3=Choudhury |first3=Dhrupad |last4=Regmi |first4=Bimal Raj |last5=Kelkar |first5=Ulka |last6=Alam |first6=Mozaharul |last7=Chaudhary |first7=Pashupati |last8=Mu |first8=Seinn Seinn |last9=Ahmed |first9=Ahsan Uddin |last10=Lotia |first10=Hina |last11=Fu |first11=Chao |last12=Namgyel |first12=Thinley |last13=Sharma |first13=Upasna |title=The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment |date= 2019 |chapter=Adaptation to Climate Change in the Hindu Kush Himalaya: Stronger Action Urgently Needed |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1_13 |pages=457–490 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-92288-1_13 |isbn=978-3-319-92287-4 |s2cid=133625937 }}

The 2019 Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment outlined three main "storylines" for the region between now and 2080: "business-as-usual" (or "muddling through"), with no significant change from the current trends and development/adaptation initiatives proceeding as they do now; "downhill", where the intensity of global climate change is high, local initiatives fail and regional cooperation breaks down; and "prosperous", where extensive cooperation allows region's communities to weather "moderate" climate change and increase their living standards while also preserving the region's biodiversity. In addition, it described two alternate pathways through which the "prosperous" future can be achieved: the first focuses on top-down, large-scale development and the latter describes a bottom-up, decentralized alternative.

Pre-Islamic populations of the Hindu Kush included Shins, Yeshkuns,Biddulph, p. 12Biddulph, p. 38 Chiliss, NeemchasBiddulph, p. 7 Koli,Biddulph, p. 9 Palus, Gaware,Biddulph, p. 11 and Krammins.

• Mount Imeon
• Paropamisus Mountains
• A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush
• Geography of Afghanistan
• Geography of Pakistan
• Karakoram
• Hindustan
• List of highest mountains (a list of mountains above 7,200m)
• List of mountain ranges
• 2002 Hindu Kush earthquakes
• 2005 Hindu Kush earthquake

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite journal |title=Mapping the vulnerability hotspots over Hindu-Kush Himalaya region to flooding disasters |doi=10.1016/j.wace.2014.12.001 |volume=8 |pages=46–58 |journal=Weather and Climate Extremes|year=2015 |last1=Elalem |first1=Shada |last2=Pal |first2=Indrani |bibcode=2015WCE.....8...46E |doi-access=free}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.assess-hkh.at/downloads/Poster1_ASSESS_HKH_scientific.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922065423/http://www.assess-hkh.at/downloads/Poster1_ASSESS_HKH_scientific.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-22 |url-status=live |title=Development of an ASSESSment system to evaluate the ecological status of rivers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region |periodical=Assess-HKH.at |access-date=6 September 2015}}

[https://www.britannica.com/place/Karakoram-Range Karakoram Range: MOUNTAINS, ASIA], Encyclopædia Britannica

{{cite book|author=Stefan Heuberger|title=The Karakoram-Kohistan Suture Zone in NW Pakistan – Hindu Kush Mountain Range|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=67JwfOvNm4UC&pg=PA25|year=2004|publisher=vdf Hochschulverlag AG|isbn=978-3-7281-2965-9|pages=25–26}}

[https://www.britannica.com/place/Spin-Ghar-Range Spīn Ghar Range, MOUNTAINS, PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN], Encyclopædia Britannica

{{cite book|author1=Jonathan M. Bloom|author2=Sheila S. Blair|title=The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=un4WcfEASZwC&pg=PA389 |year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-530991-1|pages=389–390}}

{{cite book|author=Frank Clements|title=Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bv4hzxpo424C&pg=PA109|year=2003|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-402-8|pages=109–110}}

{{cite web |url=http://www.icimod.org/?q=1137 |title=Hindu Kush Himalayan Region |publisher= ICIMOD |access-date=17 October 2014}}

{{cite book|author=Konrad H. Kinzl|title=A Companion to the Classical Greek World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=loeWIRBo3isC&pg=PA577|year=2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-3412-8|page=577}}

{{cite book|author=Michael Ryan|title=Decoding Al-Qaeda's Strategy: The Deep Battle Against America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtCrAgAAQBAJ |year=2013|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-16384-2|pages=54–55}}

{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVgrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT29|title=Pagan Christmas: Winter Feasts of the Kalasha of the Hindu Kush|author=Augusto S. Cacopardo|publisher=Gingko Library|isbn=978-1-90-994285-1|date=15 February 2017}}

{{cite book|author=Mike Searle|title=Colliding Continents: A geological exploration of the Himalaya, Karakoram, and Tibet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c25oAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA157|year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-165248-6|page=157}}, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan".

{{cite book|author=Francis Joseph Steingass|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=knA9NptP7xsC&pg=PA1030|title=A Comprehensive Persian–English Dictionary|publisher=Asian Educational Services|year=1992|isbn=978-81-206-0670-8|pages=1030–1031 (kush means "killer, kills, slays, murders, oppresses"), p. 455 (khirs–kush means "bear killer"), p. 734 (shutur–kush means "camel butcher"), p. 1213 (mardum–kush means "man slaughter")}}

{{cite book|author=André Wink|title=Al-Hind: The Slavic Kings and the Islamic Conquest, 11th–13th Centuries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uQ7k2vQlYxEC&pg=PA52 |year=2002|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-0-391-04174-5|pages=52–53}}

}}

; Works cited

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last=Biddulph |first=John |year=2001 |orig-year=1880 |title=Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh |location=Lahore |publisher=Sang-e-Meel |isbn=9789693505825 |oclc=223434311 }} {{Google books|P4tEAQAAMAAJ|Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh}} (facsimile of the original edition).

{{refend}}

• Drew, Frederic (1877). The Northern Barrier of India: A Popular Account of the Jammoo and Kashmir Territories with Illustrations. Frederic Drew. 1st edition: Edward Stanford, London. Reprint: Light & Life Publishers, Jammu, 1971
• Gibb, H. A. R. (1929). Ibn Battūta: Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354. Translated and selected by H. A. R. Gibb. Reprint: Asian Educational Services, New Delhi and Madras, 1992
• Gordon, T. E. (1876). The Roof of the World: Being the Narrative of a Journey over the High Plateau of Tibet to the Russian Frontier and the Oxus Sources on Pamir. Edinburgh. Edmonston and Douglas. Reprint: Ch’eng Wen Publishing Company. Tapei, 1971
• Leitner, Gottlieb Wilhelm (1890). Dardistan in 1866, 1886 and 1893: Being An Account of the History, Religions, Customs, Legends, Fables and Songs of Gilgit, Chilas, Kandia (Gabrial) Yasin, Chitral, Hunza, Nagyr and other parts of the Hindukush, as also a supplement to the second edition of The Hunza and Nagyr Handbook. And An Epitome of Part III of the author's 'The Languages and Races of Dardistan'. Reprint, 1978. Manjusri Publishing House, New Delhi. {{ISBN|81-206-1217-5}}
• Newby, Eric. (1958). A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. Secker, London. Reprint: Lonely Planet. {{ISBN|978-0-86442-604-8}}
• Yule, Henry and Burnell, A. C. (1886). Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary. 1996 reprint by Wordsworth Editions Ltd. {{ISBN|1-85326-363-X}}
• [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/aftoc.html A Country Study: Afghanistan], Library of Congress
• Ervin Grötzbach, {{Iranica|hindu-kush}}
• Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th Ed., Vol. 21, pp. 54–55, 65, 1987
• An Advanced History of India, by R. C. Majumdar, H. C. Raychaudhuri, K.Datta, 2nd Ed., MacMillan and Co., London, pp. 336–37, 1965
• The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period, by W. Haig & R. Burn, S. Chand & Co., New Delhi, pp. 98–99, 1963

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Wikivoyage}}

{{Commons category|Hindu Kush}}

{{EB1911 poster|Hindu Kush}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140712133729/http://www.afghan-network.net/Culture/khyber.html Khyber Pass]
• [http://www.baluch-rugs.com/History/Hindu_Kush_Mountains.htm Early Explorers of the Hindu Kush] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703015449/http://www.baluch-rugs.com/History/Hindu_Kush_Mountains.htm |date=3 July 2012 }}
• [http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/170/1/277.abstract Geology]
• [http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2015/02/hesco-barriers-in-the-hindu-kush-mountains.html More geology]
• [http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2011/02/hindu-kush-mountains-of-afghanistan.html And more geology]

{{Ranges of Iranian Plateau}}

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