Urgun ( ps, ارګون) is the main town of the

Urgun District Urgun ( ps, ارګون ولسوالۍ, fa, ولسوالی ارگون) is a district of the remote Paktika Province in Afghanistan. Administrative seat The administrative seat of this district is the like-named town of Urgun, also known as ''L ...

Paktika Province Paktika (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000, mostly ethnic Pashtuns. The town of Sharan ...

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 ...

. With an estimated population of 10,665,Orgun: map, population, location.
TipTopGlobe.com. Urgun is the largest city of Paktika, while Urgun District, with a population of 89,718, is also the most populous district of the province. Urgun historically used to be the capital of Paktika, but in the 1970s, the capital was shifted from Urgun to

Sharana Sharana ( ps, ښرنه) or Sharan ( fa, شاران) is the capital of Paktika Province, Afghanistan. It is located at an altitude of 2,200 meters. Its population was estimated to be 2,200 in 2006. The city of Sharana has a population of 15,651 ( ...

in the west because Urgun was not easily accessible from the main

Kabul–Kandahar Highway The Kabul–Kandahar Highway (NH0101) is a road linking Afghanistan's two largest cities, Kabul and Kandahar, passing through Maidan Shar, Saydabad, Ghazni, and Qalati Ghilji. This highway is a key portion of Afghanistan's national highway sys ...

Names

The town of Urgun is also called ''Loy Urgun'' (), "Greater Urgun". Like many place names in Afghanistan, Urgun can be spelled a number of different ways. Orgun, Urgin, Urgum, Urgim, Urghim, Wargun, Warghun, Arghun, Urgon, and Orgon are the most popular alternative spellings. Urgun with some land for agriculture has recently seen progress of a poorly made road connecting it to the angorada border with Pakistan. It has also been the witness of disastrous attacks including the one that left 106 civilians dead on a single day on June 14, 2014.

History

The site of a large fortress, Urgun used to be the capital of the largely undeveloped and remote province of

Paktika Paktika (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000, mostly ethnic Pashtuns. The town of Sharana ...

. In the 1970s, however, the provincial capital was moved from Urgun to the town of

, due to Sharana's proximity with the main highway connecting it to the larger cities and commercial centers of

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 ...

and

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...

. The

Siege of Urgun The siege of Urgun was a military engagement that took place during the Soviet–Afghan War. Between August 1983 and January 1984 Mujahideen forces laid siege to the town of Urgun, which was defended by a garrison of troops loyal to the Democra ...

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-Soviet ...

took place between 1983 and 1984. It devastated the town.

References

Populated places in Paktika Province {{Paktika-geo-stub

Names

History

See also

References