The Kushan Pass or Kaoshan Pass (el. about 4,370 m or 14,340 ft) is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both human and animal migr ...

just west of the famous

Salang Pass The Salang Pass ( ps, د سالنګ لاره; prs, كتل سالنگ ''Kutal-i Salang'', el. ) is the primary mountain pass connecting northern Afghanistan with Parwan Province, with onward connections to Kabul Province, southern Afghanistan, ...

(3,878 m. or 12,723 ft.) in the

Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Province ...

mountain range of northern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

. These two passes provided the most direct, if difficult, routes across the imposing east–west wall of the

mountains which divide northern

Tokharistan Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources. In the 7th and 8th century CE, Tokharistan c ...

from

Kabul province Kabul (Persian: ), situated in the east of the country, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. The capital of the province is Kabul city, which is also Afghanistan's capital and largest city. The population of the Kabul Province i ...

, which is closely connected to southern Afghanistan and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Nowadays, the

Salang tunnel The Salang Tunnel ( prs, تونل سالنگ ''Tūnel-e Sālang'', ps, د سالنگ تونل ''Da Sālang Tūnel'') is a tunnel in Afghanistan, located at the Salang Pass in the Hindu Kush mountains, between the Parwan and Baghlan provinces, ...

constructed by the Soviets in the 1960s, and the paved road through it make it by far the easiest route through the Hindu Kush Mountains. Vincent Smith states that

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

took his troops across both the

Khawak Pass Khawak Pass (elevation ) 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. This is the route traditionally thought to have been ...

and the Kaoshān or Kushan Pass.

"Towards the close of spring in the year 327 B.C. when the sun had sufficiently melted the snows, he lexander the Greatled his army, including perhaps fifty or sixty thousand Europeans, across the lofty Khāwak and Kaoshān passes of the Hindu Kush, or Indian Caucasus, and after ten days' toil amidst the mountains emerged in the rich valley now known as the Koh-i-Daman."

However, according to some scholars, there is really no proof for this. It seems probable that the Pass was named after the

Kushan The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, ...

dynasty which had a number of important sites in the region of Baghlan, to the north of the passes (dating from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE), including the majestic fortified dynastic temple of Surkh Kotal and Rabatak where the fascinating

Rabatak inscription The Rabatak Inscription is an stone inscribed with text written in the Bactrian language and Greek script, found in 1993 at the site of Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan. The inscription relates to the rule of the Kushan emperor Kani ...

listing the names of the early Kushan kings, and providing evidence on the date of the beginning of the

Kanishka Kanishka I (Sanskrit: कनिष्क, '; Greco-Bactrian: Κανηϸκε ''Kanēške''; Kharosthi: 𐨐𐨞𐨁𐨮𐨿𐨐 '; Brahmi: '), or Kanishka, was an emperor of the Kushan dynasty, under whose reign (c. 127–150 CE) the empire ...

era was found a few years ago—which is now commonly thought to have begun around 127 CE. It seems it is the Yangi-Yuli, or "New Road" of

Babur Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through hi ...

(1483–1530), the conqueror of northern India and founder of the Mughal Dynasty.Wood (1872), p. lxxiv. Both the Kushan and Khawak passes, so important for the early history of Afghanistan, are now bypassed by the paved road that runs through the

under the

, completed by the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in ...

in 1964, at a height of about 3,400 m. It links Charikar and

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...

with Kunduz,

Khulm Kholm or Khulm (Dari/Pashto: خلم), formerly known as Tashqurghan (Dari/Uzbek: تاشقرغان), is a town in Balkh Province of northern Afghanistan, 60 km east of Mazar-i-Sharif one-third of the way to Kunduz. Kholm is an ancient town loc ...

Mazari Sharif , official_name = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , pushpin_map = Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_label = Mazar-i-Sharif , pushpin ...

and Termez.

Footnotes

References

*Hill, John E. (2015) ''Through the Jade Gate - China to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes 1st to 2nd Centuries CE'', Vols. I and II. John E. Hill. CreateSpace, North Charleston, South Carolina. ; 978–1503384620. *Smith, Vincent A. (1908) ''The Early History of India''. Oxford. The Clarendon Press. *Vogelsang, Willem. (2002) ''The Afghans''. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford. *Wood, John (1872) ''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''. London: John Murray. {{coord missing, Afghanistan Mountain passes of Afghanistan Landforms of Baghlan Province Landforms of Kabul Province Landforms of Parwan Province