Kabul River

River in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Kabul River

Aerial photo of Kabul River flood-plain east of Kabul, Afghanistan

Etymology| Kabul's River in Dari/Persian
Native name| د کابل سیند (Da Kābul Sīnd) (Pashto)
Location
Countries| Afghanistan and Pakistan
Cities| Kabul, Surobi, Jalalabad (Afghanistan);
Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera (Pakistan)
Physical characteristics
Source| Hindu Kush Mountains
• location| Near Maidan Shar, Maidan Wardak, Afghanistan
• coordinates| 34°21′25″N 68°50′21″E﻿ / ﻿34.357°N 68.8392°E﻿ / 34.357; 68.8392
• elevation| 2,400 m (7,900 ft)
Mouth| Indus River

• location

| Near Kund Park, Attock, Punjab, Pakistan

• coordinates

| 33°55′0″N 72°13′56″E﻿ / ﻿33.91667°N 72.23222°E﻿ / 33.91667; 72.23222
Length| 700 km (430 mi)
Basin size| 70,500 km2 (27,200 sq mi)
Basin features
Tributaries|
• left| Panjshir River, Alingar River, Kunar River, Swat River
• right| Logar River, Surkhab River, Bara River

The Kabul River (Dari: دریای کابل; Pashto: د کابل سیند), the classical Cophen /ˈkoʊfeɪn/, is a 700-kilometre-long (430 mi) river that emerges in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush mountains in the northeastern part of Maidan Wardak Province, Afghanistan. It is separated from the watershed of the Helmand River by the Unai Pass. The Kabul River empties into the Indus River near Attock, Pakistan. It is the main river in eastern Afghanistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

## Course

[edit]

The Kabul River, which measures 700 kilometres or 435 miles long, rises in the Sanglākh Range[1] at Sar Čašma, located at an elevation of 14,000 feet above sea level in the Kōh-e Bābā mountains northwest of Kabul.[2] It passes through the cities of Kabul and Jalalabad in Afghanistan. Its large drainage basin covers the eastern provinces of Nangarhār, Kunar, Laghmān, Lōgar, Kabul, Kāpisā, Parwān, Panjshēr, and Bāmyān before it flows into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan some 25 kilometres (16 mi) north of the Durand Line border crossing at Torkham.[3]

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the river passes through the cities of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Nowshera. The major tributaries of the Kabul River are the Logar, Panjshir, Alingar, Surkhab, Kunar, Bara, and Swat rivers.[4]

One of five bridges that crossed Kabul River during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1879-1880) era. Soldiers are pictured atop the bridge while people walk along the road in the distance and in the right foreground people sit or squat on the bridge while soldiers ride behind them. Bala Hissar (High Fort) is in the background just visible through the heat haze and trees. It was the locus of power in Kabul for many centuries and the site of fierce fighting during the war. It was partly destroyed between October and December 1879 when Sir Frederick Roberts occupied the city at the head of the Kabul Field Force

## Hydrology

[edit]

The Kabul River is little more than a trickle for most of the year, but swells in summer due to melting snows in the Hindu Kush Range. Its largest tributary is the Kunar River, which starts out as the Mastuj River, flowing from the Chiantar glacier in Brughil valley in Chitral, Pakistan and after flowing south into Afghanistan it is met by the Bashgal river flowing from Nurestan. The Kunar meets the Kabul near Jalalabad. In spite of the Kunar carrying more water than the Kabul, the river continues as the Kabul River after this confluence, mainly for the political and historical significance of the name.

### Dams

[edit]

The Kabul River is impounded by several dams that were constructed in the 20th century. Three dams are located in the Kabul and Nangarhar provinces of Afghanistan, including the Surobi dam, a hydroelectric source for Kabul constructed 1957 with assistance by Germany, the Naghlu and the Darunta dams which were built by Soviet scientists in the 1960s. The Warsak Dam is also in the Valley of Peshawar in Pakistan, approximately 20 km northwest of the city of Peshawar.[3]

## History

[edit]

### Expedition of Alexander the Great into Asia

[edit]

Main article: Cophen campaign

In Arrian's The Campaigns of Alexander, the River Kabul is referred to as Κωφήν Kōphēn (Latin spelling Cophen).[5][6][7][8]

### Modern era

[edit]

Since the 1990s, the river has experienced substantial droughts in summer.[3] In approximately March 2019, ten of thousands of gallons of untreated sewage from the Makroyan Waste Water Treatment Plant has been dumped into the Kabul River each month, reportedly causing gastrointestinal issues among the 3,000 families that live along the river.[9]

## Etymology

[edit]

### In Sanskrit and Avestan

[edit]

The word Kubhā which is the ancient name of the river is both a Sanskrit and Avestan word. The word later changed to Kābul.[10][11]

### Al-Biruni

[edit]

Al-Biruni, a Persian polymath, also called it "the River of Ghorwand".[12]

The Kabul River later gave its name to the region and to the settlement of Kabul.[12]

### Institution Leadership

[edit]

Kabul River Basin (KRB) is a government authority under the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA). Based on the Water Law it was created. The recent Director General of this major water institution was Jalal Naser Faqiryar, who brought positive changes, contributed a lot to the transparency, basin development, and applicable policies, especially river basin management which had positive impacts and results.

## Gallery

[edit]

* The Kabul River in the city of Kabul, 1966

* The Kabul River in the city of Kabul, 1982

* The Kabul River in the city of Kabul in 2009, now dried up

* The dried river in the central city of Kabul

* Kabul River valley

* Gorge of the Kabul River, parallel to the Kabul-Jalalabad Road

* Kabul River in Behsood Bridge Area, Jalalabad, 2009

* Kabul River in Behsood Bridge Area, Jalalabad, 2009

* Buddhist caves, which have been carved into a set of cliffs on the north side of the Kabul river

* A dam on the river

* Kabul River at Behsood Bridge, Jalalabad

## See also

[edit]

* List of rivers of Afghanistan
* List of rivers of Pakistan

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Kabul River | Afghanistan, Pakistan, Map, & Length | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-05-21.
2. ^ referenceworks.brill.com https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EIRO/COM-4187.xml?language=en. Retrieved 2025-05-21. `{{cite web}}`: Missing or empty `|title=` (help)
3. ^ a b c Wilde, A (April 19, 2012). "Kabul River".
4. ^ "One Land, Two Rules (9): Delivering public services in insurgency-affected Jalrez district of Wardak province". Afghan Analysts Network. 16 December 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
5. ^ Arrian, John Rooke; Arrian (1813). "A brief account of all the authors who have touched upon the history of Alexander". Arrian's History of the expedition of Alexander the Great: and conquest of Persia. Translated by Rooke, John (2nd ed.). J. Davis.
6. ^ Cawthorne, Nigel (2004). Alexander the Great. Haus Publishing. ISBN 1-904341-56-X.
7. ^ Heckel, Waldemar (2003). The wars of Alexander the Great, 336-323 B.C. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-96855-0.
8. ^ Arrian (2005). Romm, James S. (ed.). Alexander the Great: selections from Arrian, Diodorus, Plutarch, and Quintus Curtius. Translated by Mensch, Pamela. Hackett Publishing. ISBN 0-87220-727-7.
9. ^ Lawrence, J.P.; Babakarkhail, Zubair (September 12, 2020). "Sewage from US Embassy, NATO headquarters dumped into Kabul River due to aging infrastructure". Stars and Stripes. Archived from the original on September 15, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
10. ^ Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Achut Dattatrya Pusalker, A. K. Majumdar, Dilip Kumar Ghose, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Vishvanath Govind Dighe Published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (1962). The History and Culture of the Indian People : The Vedic age. p. 247\. "The Kubha is the modern Kabul river which flows into the Indus a little above Attock and receives at Prang the joint flow of its tributaries the Swat (Swastu) and Gauri"`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
11. ^ Muir, John. Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People of India. p. 352\. "'In the older parts of the Rigved the Indian people appear to be settled on the north western border of India, in the Punjab and even beyond the Punjab on the borders of the Kubha river the Kowpher in Kabul. The gradual diffusion of these people from this point towards the east, beyond the Saraswati and Hindustan as far as the Ganges, can be traced almost step by step in the later portions of the Vedic writings"
12. ^ a b Bosworth, C.E. (1999). "Kabul". Encyclopaedia of Islam (CD-ROM Edition v. 1.0 ed.). Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV.

## External links

[edit]

* Kabul River. Encyclopaedia Iranica.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kabul River.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Kabul River".

33°55′0″N 72°13′56″E﻿ / ﻿33.91667°N 72.23222°E﻿ / 33.91667; 72.23222

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