Wakhan Corridor

{{Short description|Narrow strip of land in northeastern Afghanistan}}

{{Chinese

| pic = Wakhan.png

| pic2 = Corridoio del Vacan.JPG

| piccap = Wakhan Corridor

| order = st

| pic2cap = Wakhan corridor is in blue color

| s = 瓦罕走廊

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| p = Wǎhǎn Zǒuláng

| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|wa|3|h|an|3|-|z|ou|3|l|ang|2}}

| j = Ngaa⁵Hon²Zau²Long⁴

| l = Wakhan Corridor

| s2 = 阿富汗走廊

| t2 = 阿富汗走廊

| p2 = Āfùhàn Zǒuláng

| mi2 = {{IPAc-cmn|a|1|f|u|4|h|an|4|-|z|ou|3|l|ang|2}}

| j2 = Aa³Fu³Hon⁶ Zau²Long⁴

| l2 = Afghan Corridor

| s3 = 瓦罕帕米尔

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| p3 = Wǎhǎn Pàmǐ'ěr

| mi3 = {{IPAc-cmn|wa|3|h|an|3|-|p|a|4|m|i|3|er|3}}

| j3 = Ngaa⁵Hon² Paak⁸Mai⁵Yi⁵

| l3 = Wakhan Pamir

| uig = ۋاخان كارىدورى

| lang1 = Pashto

| lang1_content = {{lang|fa|دهلېز واخان}}

}}

The Wakhan Corridor ({{langx|prs|دالان واخان|translit=Dâlân-e wâxân}}; {{langx|ps|واخان دهلېز|translit=Vâxân dahléz}}) is a narrow strip of territory in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. This corridor stretches eastward, connecting Afghanistan to Xinjiang, China. It also separates the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan in the north from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan regions in Pakistan in the south, the latter of which is also part of the disputed region of Kashmir.{{cite book|author1=Bruce Elleman|author2=Stephen Kotkin|author3=Clive Schofield|title=Beijing's Power and China's Borders: Twenty Neighbors in Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CnDlcP6L8iEC&pg=PA13|date=18 May 2015|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-2766-7|pages=13–|quote=The Sino-Afghan border was delimited in a secret treaty signed during November 1963. The corridor shares a border with Pakistan to its south and Tajikistan to its north.}}{{cite book|author1=Pervaiz I Cheema|author2=Manuel Riemer|title=Pakistan's Defence Policy 1947–58|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CX6xCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46|date=22 August 1990|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-1-349-20942-2|pages=46–|quote=In addition, the Soviet Union is separated from Pakistani territory by a small strip commonly known as the Wakhan corridor. Theoretically the Soviet Union does not have a common border with Pakistan but in view of their close linkage with Afghanistan and the shortness of Wakhan's breadth make it an immediate neighbour for all practical purposes.}}{{cite book|author=Yasmeen Niaz Mohiuddin|title=Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OTMy0B9OZjAC&pg=PA18|year=2007|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-801-9|pages=18–|quote=The Chitral and Kalash valleys of the Hindu Kush Mountains are located north of the Swat Valley in the Chitral district of the North-West Frontier Province and are bordered by Afghanistan on the north, south, and west. The Wakhan Corridor separates Pakistan from Tajikistan. The corridor, wedged between the Pamir Mountains to the north and the Karakoram range to the south, is about {{Convert|350|km|abbr=on}} long and {{Convert|13|-|65|km|0}} wide.}}[http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS026.pdf International Boundary Study of the Afghanistan–USSR Boundary (1983)] by the US Bureau of Intelligence and Research Pg. 7. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110607171742/http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS026.pdf Archived] on 2011-06-07{{Cite journal |last=Ashraf |first=Fahmida |title=The Strategic Wakhan |date=1986 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45182417 |journal=Strategic Studies |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=48–67 |jstor=45182417 |issn=1029-0990 |access-date=4 April 2023 |archive-date=5 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405052929/https://www.jstor.org/stable/45182417 |url-status=live }}{{Efn|India also claims to have a border with Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in its northwest due to its claim on Kashmir. However, this is disputed and the region bordering Afghanistan is administered by Pakistan as part of Gilgit-Baltistan (see Borders of India#Land borders of India.)}} This high mountain valley, which rises to a maximum altitude of {{convert|4923|m|abbr=on}}, serves as the source of both the Panj and Pamir rivers, which converge to form the larger Amu Darya River. For countless centuries, a vital trade route has traversed this valley, facilitating the movement of travelers to and from East, South, and Central Asia.{{Cite web|title=Wakhan Corridor travel guide|url=https://caravanistan.com/afghanistan/wakhan-corridor/|access-date=29 October 2018|website=Caravanistan|language=en-US}}

The corridor was formed after an 1893 agreement between Mortimer Durand of the British Raj and Emir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan, creating the Durand Line.Nystrop, Richard F. And Donald M. Seekins, eds. Afghanistan a Country Study. Washington: Library of Congress, 1986, p. 38. It was last conquered by the Durrani Empire in 1763.{{Cite web|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/jesh/66/5-6/article-p707_5.xml|title=‘Do You Not Bow before Heaven?’: The First Qing- Durrānī Encounter, the Tributary Non-relationship, and Disorder on a Shared Frontier|publisher=Brill Publishers|date=7 June 2023|access-date=3 January 2025}} This narrow strip acted as a buffer zone between the Russian Empire and the British Empire (the regions of Russian Turkestan, now in Tajikistan and the northern part of British Raj, now in Pakistan). Its eastern end bordered China's Xinjiang region, then claimed by the Qing dynasty.

The corridor is in the Wakhan District of Afghanistan's Badakhshan province. As of 2020, it had 17,167 residents.https://web.archive.org/web/20210624204559/https://www.nsia.gov.af:8080/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Estimated-Population-of-Afghanistan1-1400.pdf (p. 87) The northern part of the Wakhan, populated by the Wakhi and Pamiri people, is also referred to as the Pamir. The closest major airport for the residents to use is Fayzabad Airport in the city of Fayzabad to the west, which can be reached by a road network.

Geography

File:FrontLines Environment Photo Contest Winner -5 (5808476109).jpgs in the Wakhan Corridor]]

File:Thomas Edward Gordon Lake Victoria, Great Pamir, May 2nd, 1874.png, the Great Pamir, 2 May 1874, watercolour by Thomas Edward Gordon{{Cite web|url=https://www.sphinxfineart.com/inventory-detail-page/832240/0/lake-victoria-great-pamir-may-2nd-1874|title=Lake Victoria, Great Pamir, May 2nd, 1874 – Lake Victoria, Great Pamir, May 2nd, 1874|website=Sphinxfineart.com|access-date=11 December 2021}}]]

At its western entrance, near the Afghan town of Ishkashim, the corridor is {{Convert|18|km|abbr=on}} wide. The western third of the corridor varies in width ({{Convert|13|-|30|km|0|abbr=on}}) and widens to {{Convert|65|km|abbr=on}} in the central Wakhan. At its eastern end, the corridor forks into two prongs that wrap around a salient of Chinese territory, forming the {{Convert|92|km|abbr=on}} boundary between the two countries. The Wakhjir Pass, which is the easternmost point on the southeastern prong, is about {{Convert|300|km|abbr=on}} from Ishkashim. The easternmost point of the northeastern prong is a nameless wilderness about {{Convert|350|km|abbr=on}} from Ishkashim. On the Chinese side of the border is the Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

The northern border of the corridor is formed by the Pamir River and Lake Zorkul in the west and the high peaks of the Pamir Mountains in the east. To the north is Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. To the south, the corridor is bounded by the high mountains of the Hindu Kush and Karakoram. Along the southern flank of the corridor, there are two mountain passes that connect the corridor to its neighbours. The Broghol pass offers access to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan, while the Irshad Pass connects the corridor to Gilgit-Baltistan. The Dilisang Pass, which also connects to Gilgit-Baltistan, is disused.The pass was crossed by a couple in 1950 and by a couple in 2004. See [http://www.mockandoneil.com/stg04r2.htm J.Mock and K. O'Neil: Expedition Report] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110108052614/http://www.mockandoneil.com/stg04r2.htm |date=8 January 2011 }} The easternmost pass, as indicated above, is the Wakhjir Pass, which connects to China and is the only border connection between that country and Afghanistan.

The corridor is higher in the east than in the west; (the Wakhjir Pass is {{convert|4923|m|abbr=on}} in elevation) and descends to about {{convert|3037|m|abbr=on}} at Ishkashim.[https://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSSP389507 FACTBOX-Key facts about the Wakhan Corridor] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125071402/https://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSSP389507 |date=25 January 2022 }}. Reuters. 12 June 2009 The Wakhjir River emerges from an ice cave on the Afghan side of the Wakhjir Pass and flows west, joining the Bozai Darya near the village of Bozai Gumbaz to form the Wakhan River. The Wakhan River then joins the Pamir River near Kala-i-Panj to form the Panj River, which then flows out of the Wakhan Corridor at Ishkashim.

The Chinese consider Chalachigu Valley, the valley east of Wakhjir Pass on the Chinese side connecting Taghdumbash Pamir, to be part of the Wakhan Corridor. The high mountain valley is about {{convert|100|km|-1|abbr=on}} long. This valley, through which the Tashkurgan River flows, is generally about {{convert|3-5|km|0|abbr=on}} wide and less than {{convert|1|km|1|abbr=on}} at its narrowest point.{{Cite web

| title = 新疆边境行：记者抵达瓦罕走廊中方最西端(图)_新闻中心_新浪网

| trans-title = Xinjiang Border Tour: Reporter arrived at the Chinese westernmost point of Wakhan Corridor

| website = news.sina.com.cn

| publisher = Global Times

| date = 7 July 2011

| access-date = 5 February 2017

| url = http://news.sina.com.cn/c/p/2011-07-07/114022773076.shtml

| language = zh

| archive-date = 18 August 2016

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160818022353/http://news.sina.com.cn/c/p/2011-07-07/114022773076.shtml

| url-status = live

}} This entire valley on the Chinese side is closed to visitors; however, local residents and herders from the area are permitted access.{{Cite web|last=Urwin|first=Simon|date=3 July 2021|title=A new road to an inaccessible land|url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210701-a-new-road-to-an-inaccessible-land|access-date=2021-11-14|website=BBC Travel|language=en}}

History

Although the terrain is extremely rugged, the Corridor was historically used as a trading route between Kabul and Kashgar.{{cite book |last=Beveridge |first=Annette Susannah |author-link=Annette Beveridge |date=7 January 2014 |title=The Bābur-nāma in English, Memoirs of Bābur |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/44608/44608-h/44608-h.htm#Page_202 |publisher=Project Gutenberg |page=202}}{{Cite journal | last = Stein | first = Mark Aurel | author-link = Aurel Stein | title = Ancient Khotan | journal = Nature | year = 1907 | volume = 76 | issue = 1981 | pages = 619–620 | doi = 10.1038/076619a0 | bibcode = 1907Natur..76..619H | s2cid = 3999325 | url = http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-5-B2-7/V-1/page/0066.html.en | doi-access = free }} It appears that Alexander the Great, Song Yun, Huisheng, Xuanzang, Marco Polo, and many others came this way.The Travels of Marco Polo, Book 1, Chapter 32 The Portuguese Jesuit priest Bento de Goes crossed from the Wakhan to China between 1602 and 1606. The area was visited under the watchful eyes of the Russians by Thomas Edward Gordon in 1874,{{cite book|author=Keay, J.|date=1983|title=When Men and Mountains Meet|isbn=0-7126-0196-1|pages=256–7}} and in 1891 by Francis Younghusband,Younghusband, F. (1896, republished 2000) "The Heart of a Continent" {{ISBN|978-1-4212-6551-3}} followed by Lord Curzon in 1894."Geographical Journal" (July to September 1896) While visiting Wakhan in May 1906, Aurel Stein reported that 100 pony loads of goods crossed annually to China.Shahrani, M. Nazif (1979 and 2002) p.37

Early travellers used one of three routes:

A northern route led up the valley of the Pamir River to Zorkul Lake, then east through the mountains to the valley of the Bartang River, then across the Sarikol Range to China.
A southern route led up the valley of the Wakhan River to the Wakhjir Pass to China. This pass is closed for at least five months a year and is only open irregularly for the remainder.{{Cite book|last=Townsend|first=Jacob|url=http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/Townsend_4.pdf|title=China and Afghan Opiates: Assessing the Risk|year=2005|chapter=4. Routes into Xinjiang|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717085137/http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/publications/Townsend_4.pdf|archive-date=17 July 2012|url-status=dead}}
A central route branched off the southern route through the Little Pamir to the Murghab River valley.

From a non-Afghan point of view, the corridor is in part a political creation from The Great Game between British India and Russian Empire. In the north, an agreement between the empires in 1873 effectively split the historic region of Wakhan by making the Panj and Pamir Rivers the border between Afghanistan and the then-Russian Empire. In the south, the Durand Line Agreement of 1893 marked the boundary between British India and Afghanistan. This left a narrow strip of land ruled by Afghanistan as a buffer between the two empires, which became known as the Wakhan Corridor in the 20th century.{{cite news|title=A Few Salient Points|url=https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/a-few-salient-points/|first=Frank|last=Jacobs|date=5 December 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=19 May 2017|archive-date=2 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702233454/https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/a-few-salient-points/|url-status=live}}

The corridor has been closed to regular traffic for over a century and there is no modern road. There is a rough road from Ishkashim to Sarhad-e Broghil{{Cite web|url=http://www.mockandoneil.com/stg04r3.htm#faizabad|title=2004 Mock & O'Neil Wakhan Expedition Report|website=Mockandoneil.com|access-date=11 December 2021|archive-date=9 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509074858/http://www.mockandoneil.com/stg04r3.htm#faizabad|url-status=live}} built in the 1960s,{{Cite web |url=http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/WCR.pdf |title=United Nations Environment Programme (2003) Wakhan Mission Report |access-date=26 July 2010 |archive-date=16 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190816201653/https://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/WCR.pdf |url-status=live }} but only rough paths beyond. These paths run some {{convert|100|km|-1|abbr=on}} from the road end to the Chinese border at Wakhjir Pass, and further to the far end of the Little Pamir.

Jacob Townsend has speculated on the possibility of drug smuggling from Afghanistan to China via the Wakhan Corridor and Wakhjir Pass, but concluded that due to the difficulties of travel and border crossings, it would be minor compared to that conducted via Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province or through Pakistan, both having much more accessible routes into China.[http://www.silkroadstudies.org/publications/silkroad-papers-and-monographs/item/13131-china-and-afghan-opiates-assessing-the-risk.html "China and Afghan Opiates: Assessing the Risk"] (Chapter 4). June 2005

The remoteness of the region has meant that, despite the long-running wars of Afghanistan since the late 1970s, the region has remained virtually untouched by conflict, and many locals, mostly composed of ethnic Pamir and Kyrgyz, are not aware of the wars in the country.{{Cite web|url=https://www.news18.com/news/world/the-people-who-know-no-war-afghanistans-most-isolated-corner-1656465.html|title = Wakhan Corridor: The Afghanistan Province Untouched by Government, War or Terror|date = 10 February 2018}}

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan asked the People's Republic of China on several occasions to open the border in the Wakhan Corridor for economic reasons or as an alternative supply route for fighting the Taliban insurgency. The Chinese resisted, largely due to unrest in its far western province of Xinjiang, which borders the corridor.[http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200906111512.htm Afghanistan tells China to open Wakhan corridor route]. The Hindu. 11 June 2009 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110108051455/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200906111512.htm |date=8 January 2011 }}[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8097933.stm China mulls Afghan border request] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170910175450/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8097933.stm |date=10 September 2017 }}. BBC News Online. 12 June 2009 {{as of|2009|12|alt=In December 2009}}, it was reported that the United States had asked China to open the corridor.{{Cite web|url=http://www.southasiaanalysis.org//papers36/paper3579.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613093607/http://www.southasiaanalysis.org//papers36/paper3579.html|url-status=usurped|title=Southasiaanalysis.org|archive-date=13 June 2010|website=Southasiaanalysis.org|access-date=11 December 2021}}

In July, 2021, the area came under the Taliban control for the first time during the group's summer offensive.{{Cite news|url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/the-taliban-conquest-of-a-thin-strip-of-land-could-change-afghanistan-20210708-p587yv.html|title=The Taliban conquest of a thin strip of land could change Afghanistan|first=Marta Pascual|last=Juanola|date=23 July 2021|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=11 December 2021|archive-date=27 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827133402/https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/the-taliban-conquest-of-a-thin-strip-of-land-could-change-afghanistan-20210708-p587yv.html|url-status=live}} It was reported that hundreds of ethnic Kyrgyz nomads along with their livestock attempted to flee north into Tajikistan.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/world/asia/taliban-afghanistan-refugees.html|title=These Herders Lived in Peaceful Isolation. Now, War Has Found Them.|first=Andrew E.|last=Kramer|date=29 July 2021|access-date=11 December 2021|website=The New York Times|archive-date=29 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729161600/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/world/asia/taliban-afghanistan-refugees.html|url-status=live}} It is patrolled by forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which took over responsibility from the previous NATO-trained Afghan National Security Forces.{{cite news|url=https://pajhwok.com/2022/11/20/cabinet-orders-military-deployment-services-in-wakhan-valley/ |title=Cabinet orders military deployment, services in Wakhan valley |work=Pajhwok Afghan News |date=20 November 2022 |access-date=2022-12-21}}{{cite news|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/news-analysis/story/wakhan-the-corridor-of-complication-between-taliban-pakistan-and-china-1982403-2022-08-01 |title=Wakhan: The Corridor of Complication between Taliban, Pakistan and China |work=India Today |date=August 1, 2022 |access-date=2022-12-21}}

As of June 2023, there had been discussions between foreign ministers of China and Afghanistan concerning the opening of the strategically significant corridor to enhance the trade ties between Beijing and Kabul. Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi both met on the sidelines in Tibet during the third Trans-Himalaya Forum for International Cooperation, to discuss the possibilities of improving trade ties.{{Cite web |title=Chinese, Afghan foreign ministers discuss opening of strategic Wakhan Corridor |url=https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/chinese-afghan-foreign-ministers-discuss-opening-of-strategic-wakhan-corridor/3008982 |access-date=2023-10-24 |website=www.aa.com.tr}} Though the Taliban government finished a 50-km road through the corridor to reach the Chinese border, Beijing seems disinclined to open the border, due to security concerns.{{cite news|url=https://www.ariananews.af/construction-of-wakhan-road-between-afghanistan-china-to-be-completed-before-winter-mrrd/|title=Construction of Wakhan road between Afghanistan-China to be completed before winter: MRRD|work=Ariana News|date=August 24, 2024|access-date=2025-01-04}}{{cite news|url=https://www.wionews.com/world/china-fails-to-strike-connectivity-goal-with-taliban-amid-security-threats-in-xinjiang-report-684222|title=China fails to strike connectivity goal with Taliban amid security threats in Xinjiang: Report|date=Jan 27, 2024}}

In 2024 an independent analysis conducted at the University of Texas at Austin which relied on open source intelligence suggested the corridor consists of, "primarily dirt roads and footpaths that abruptly end before reaching the border."{{cite web|url=https://www.tearline.mil/public_page/chinese-economic-cooperation-with-the-taliban|author-first1=Raghav|author-last1=Aggarwal|author-first2=Varij|author-last2=Shah|work=Tearline|publisher=National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency|location=United States|title=Chinese Economic Cooperation with the Taliban: An Assessment of Progress|date=22 April 2024|language=en}}

References

;Citations

;Sources

{{cite book |first = M. Nazif |last = Shahrani |author-link = Nazif Shahrani |title = The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan: Adaptation to Closed Frontiers and War |year = 2002 |edition = 2nd |publisher = University of Washington Press |isbn = 978-0-295-98262-5 }}

External links

{{YouTube|xSrf1HCBgJI|Pamir Skyroad Towards Afghan Wakhan Corridor}}
{{Cite web |title=In Photos: Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan |url=https://adventuresoflilnicki.com/wakhan-corridor-photos-afghanistan/ |work=Nicole L. Smoot |access-date=2022-12-21}}
{{YouTube|-nLiDmsZrns|Food and non-food items were given to the residents of Wakhan district of Badakhshan province}} (Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA Pashto))
{{YouTube|40wJIepGVbQ|The visit of the head of Badakhshan culture information to Wakhan}} (RTA Dari)
{{YouTube|Jzv5xiWHDXU|Prisoners of the Afghan Pamir}}
{{YouTube|qGVDBdzEESs|Afghanistan: In the Wakhan Corridor – The roads of the impossible}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20210301073823/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/wakhan-corridor Stranded on the Roof of the World] 2013 National Geographic Magazine article
[https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/short-walk-wakhan-corridor/ A Short Walk in the Wakhan Corridor], article by Mark Jenkins in the November 2005 issue of Outside magazine
[http://www.akdn.org/publication/wakhan-afghan-pamir-footsteps-marco-polo Wakhan & the Afghan Pamir – In the footsteps of Marco Polo] – Brochure of the region by Aga Khan Foundation

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Category:Geography of Afghanistan

Category:Sites along the Silk Road

Category:Wakhan

Category:Geopolitical corridors

Category:Landforms of Badakhshan Province

Wakhan Corridor

Geography

History

See also

References

External links