Proceedings
of the
Royal
Geographical Society (Great Britain)
Norton Shaw, Francis
Galton, Clements Robert Markham, William Spottiswoode,
Henry Walter Bates, John Scott Keltie
Published 1879
The Basin of the Helmand.
By C. E. MARKHAM, C.B., Secretary K.G.S.
(Read
at the Evening Meeting, February 24th, 1879.)
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the Safed-Koh, or -white mountains
(not to be confused -with Safed-Koh which hounds the Kabul Valley to
the south), and the other running south-west and
separating the basin of the Helmand from that of the Hari-Rud
River. The latter is called the Siah-Koh, or black range.
The Siah-Koh runs south-west towards the Persian desert,
dividing the Helmand drainage, and the rivers flowing
direct to the Lakeof Seistan, from the valley of Herat.
Ferrier is the only European who claims to have crossed
the Siah-Koh Range to the east of the high road from Kandahar to Herat. On that
road, south of Herat,
the elevation of the water-parting is 6500 feet. The
country of Ghor is on the southern slopes of the
Siah-Koh. The Koh-i-Baba and
the Siah-Koh, being practically the continuation of the Hindu Kush, form the
northern boundary of the basin of the Helmand. They are
the Paropamisus Mountains of ancient geographers.
At the point where the Hindu Kush and Koh-i-Baba join, a ridge
runs off to the south and west, separating the valley of
the Helmand from that of the Arghandab. This is the chain
of the Paghman Mountains. At first it divides the
Ghorband and Kabul
valleys from that of the Helmand. Here it is crossed by
the road from Kabul to Bamian
(Bamiyan) over the Unai Pass, which is easy
and not very steep. The road then descends into the Helmand
Valley, and crosses the Koh-i-Baba by the Hajikhak Pass
to Bamian.
From the Paghman Range a ridge
passes eastward, and connects the system of the Hindu Kush with that
of the Sulimanis. This ridge, passing north of Ghazni,
separates the basins of the Kabul and Helmand, and is
crossed by the road from Kandahar to Kabul. It is
called the Sher-Dahan, from the pass which is the highest
point on the Kandahar
and Kabul road. From the north this pass is approached by
an easy ascent to the crest, and the southern descent
towards Ghazni
is through a narrow gorge to an extensive plain. In the
winter the Sher-Dahan Passis entirely blocked up with
snow, and can only be passed with great difficulty on
foot; but it can be turned by the Sargawan Kotal, which
is always practicable for horsemen.
The Gul-Koh Mountains start from the
Sher-Dahan ridge, or, more strictly, from the Paghmans,
and separate the Arghandab Valley from the Ghazni Basin,
and then from the Turnuk. They attain a height of 13,000
feet, the lower parts being scantily clothed with trees,
and the summits showing nothing but barren rocks. In the
spring and summer a vast variety of wild flowers clothes
the slopes; hence the name. There are six passes near Ghazni which
lead over the Gul-Koh Mountains into the valley of the
Arghandab — namely, the Kakrak, Turgan, Gulbarri,
Roba, Barakat, and Markul passes.
From the Gul-Koh Mountains a spur
branches off to the south, which bounds the Turnuk Valley
to the south and east, dividing it from the
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