Khulm
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (Retd.) |
Khulm or Kholm , also known as Tashqurghan, is a town in Balkh province of northern Afghanistan.
Contents
Location
Kholm is 60 km east of Mazar-i-Sharif one-third of the way to Konduz.
Origin of name
History
Kholm is an ancient town located on the fertile, inland delta fan of the Khulm River (Darya-i- Tashqurghan). As such, it is an agriculturally rich locale and densely populated. It is famous for its covered market, and is a centre for trading in sheep and wool.
The town is slightly to the south of the ruins of the ancient town of Aornos, destroyed in the mid-16th century.
Khulm River
The Khulm River (Darya-i Khulm) (alternate spelling: Kholm; alternate name: Tashqurghan River)[1] is a river of northern-central Afghanistan.
Course - In its upper course, it passes through Khulm and Haybak,[2] today in Balkh Province. The Khulm is a tributary to the Oxus basin.[3] Its source is located to the north of the city of Khulm. Further downstream, it passes through the city of Samangan and Samangan Province. The Khulm River forms the western border of Kunduz Province.
The Khulm River is one of the tributaries of the Amu Darya River, a major river in Central Asia. It is known as a “blind river” or “natural river” as it dries up due to local use within its basin boundary and does not reach the Amu Darya, except during exceptional high flow years. The Khulm River originates in the Kara-Kotal pass and flows through gorges and then emerges into a wide valley near the Tashkurgan town. The river raising at an elevation of 3,600 m has a total length of about 230 km. The road between Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif follows the course of the river. At the junction of the Bamian and Badakhshan routes, the Khulm River emerges from the mountains by the town of Kholm.[4]
The Khulm is used for irrigation entirely before it can reach the Oxus.[5] In 1896, Keane wrote of the countryside's desert encroachment, causing the Khulm River as it passes from the Kara-koh hills to no longer reach the Oxus.[6]
Visit by Xuanzang in 630 AD
Khulm (Hu-o) was visited by Xuanzang in 630 AD. He halted here for 1 month.[7]
Jat History
External links
References
- ↑ Noelle, Christine (1997). State and tribe in nineteenth-century Afghanistan: the reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan (1826-1863). Psychology Press. p. 61. ISBN 0-7007-0629-1.
- ↑ Le Strange, Guy (1930). The lands of the eastern caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia, from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur. CUP Archive. p. 427.
- ↑ Baynes, Thomas Spencer (1888). "Afghanistan". The Encyclopaedia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, and general literature 1. H.G. Allen. pp. 242–243.
- ↑ Keane, Augustus Henry (1896). Asia...: Southern and western Asia. E. Stanford. p. 33.
- ↑ Baynes, Thomas Spencer (1888). "Afghanistan". The Encyclopaedia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, and general literature 1. H.G. Allen. pp. 242–243.
- ↑ Keane, Augustus Henry (1896). Asia...: Southern and western Asia. E. Stanford. p. 18.
- ↑ The Ancient Geography of India: I. The Buddhist Period, Including the ...By Sir Alexander Cunningham, pp.563-568
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