Sabzwār ( fa, سبزوار) is a town and the center of the Sabzwar District,

Herat Province Herat ( Persian: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north-western part of the country. Together with Badghis, Farah, and Ghor provinces, it makes up the north-western region of Afghanistan. Its primary city a ...

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 bordere ...

. It is located at at 1,066 m altitude on the

Harut River The Harut River or Adraskan River is a river of Afghanistan. It is a river which belongs to the Sistan Basin. The source of the river lies in the mountains to the southeast of Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-larges ...

. The Sabzwar Air Base is located about 15 miles northeast of the town. Shindand is at the northern end of Zirko Valley, which is one of main centers of poppy production in western Afghanistan. The town is located south of Adriskan, where a large police training facility exists. The population is mixed, includes

Tajiks Tajiks ( fa, تاجيک، تاجک, ''Tājīk, Tājek''; tg, Тоҷик) are a Persian-speaking Iranian ethnic group native to Central Asia, living primarily in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Tajiks are the largest ethnicity in Taj ...

and others, though Pashtuns make up the majority. The main languages spoken in the area are

Dari Persian Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

. During the

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen (alongside smaller groups of anti-Sovie ...

(1979–1989) the

5th Guards Motor Rifle Division The 5th Guards ''Zimovnikovskaya'' order Kutuzov II degree Motor Rifle Division, (Military Unit Number (V/Ch) 51852 from 1979) named on the 60th anniversary of the USSR, was a military formation of the Soviet Ground Forces. It was formed from t ...

was headquartered in the town.

Etymology

The name ''Shindand'' means "green pond" in

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

. The city was previously known as Sabzawar and Asfezar.

History

Shindand was once a city of considerable size, and still possesses a fortress with sides of about 200 metres. In the 19th century the city was said to have a diverse population composed of Ghilzais,

Durranis The Durrānī ( ps, دراني, ), formerly known as Abdālī (), are one of the largest tribes of Pashtuns. Their traditional homeland is in southern Afghanistan (Loy Kandahar region), straddling into Toba Achakzai in Balochistan, Pakistan, but ...

( Alakozais, Popalzais, Barakzais),

, Zuris, Timuris,

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, and

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

. By the early 20th century this fortress had been abandoned, and the town, at the centre of a group of villages, was fairly prosperous, with a bazaar of about 800 shops. The plains about Shindand were highly cultivated by the

Nurzai Nurzai also spelled as ''Noorzai'' ( ps, نورزئی) (meaning ''son of the light'') is the name of a Pashtun tribe, part of the Panjpai section of Durrani Tareen Pashtuns. The word "''nūr''" derives from the Arabic word for ''the light''. ...

Duranis, each village protected by its own little mud fort.

Climate

With an influence from the local steppe climate, Shindand features a

cold semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

(''BSk'') under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

. The average temperature in Shindand is 16.5 °C, while the annual precipitation averages 168 mm. July is the hottest month of the year with an average temperature of 29.4 °C. The coldest month January has an average temperature of 4.1 °C.

Shindand Air Base

The

Shindand Air Base Sabzwar Air Base is an Afghan Air Base located in the western part of Afghanistan in the Sabzwar District of Herat Province, 7 miles northeast of the city of Shindand. The runway has a concrete surface. An all weather asphalt road connects it w ...

is located about 15 miles to the northeast of the town, which currently occupied by Afghan and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

International Security Assistance Force ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , command ...

. It is a former Soviet airfield, repaired by U.S. forces. The area is flat and arid, with foothills to the north and west. The

Kandahar–Herat Highway The Kandahar–Herat Highway is section of road that links the cities of Kandahar and Herat in Afghanistan. This highway is part of a larger road network, the "Ring Road", and was first constructed by the Soviets in the 1960s. The Kandahar-H ...

, which is part of Afghanistan's Highway 1, passes next to the Shindand Air Base. A free medical clinic supported by the Afghan National Army (ANA) provides free medical care for the population of the town.

Notable people

Amanullah Khan Ghazi Amanullah Khan ( Pashto and Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 25 April 1960) was the sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emir and after 1926 as King, until his abdication in 1929. After the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in August 1 ...

Ismail Khan Mohammad Ismail Khan (Dari/Pashto: محمد اسماعیل خان) (born 1946) is an Afghan former politician who served as Minister of Energy and Water from 2005 to 2013 and before that served as the governor of Herat Province. Originally a cap ...

References

External links

Photo of Shindand market vendor
Robert Lankenau, 2005-03-26 {{Authority control Populated places in Herat Province