Afghanistan

will be blogging facts about several countries in the middle east

Afghanistan

Type of government: Islamic republic

Current head of state: President Hamid Karzai

Total population: 29,121,286

% of population under 18: 144,450.00 times 291,212.86 = 42%

% of population in poverty: 42%

Capital: Kabul

Largest city: Kabul

Coasts: none

Rivers: The Kundar River, Zhob River, Karam River, Kabul River, Bara River, Kunar River , Peche River, Bashgal River, Surkhab River, Alingar River, Panjshir River, Ghorband River, Salang River, and The Logar River, and the Oxus River.

Bordering countries: Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China

Largest Religion: Islam

Climate: Most of Afghanistan has a subarctic mountain climate with dry and cold winters, except for the lowlands, which have arid and semiarid climates.

Geographical features: Afghanistan is a landlocked nation that is mostly rugged mountains called the Hindu Kush; plains in north and southwest.

Two years ago King Mohamet Zahir of Afghanistan noticed some carved stones of a kind he had not seen before in such a northeast part of Afghanistan. He showed two examples to M. Daniel Schlumberger, the head of the French archaeological mission to Afghanistan. They had been found in an area close to the Soviet frontier closed to all visitors on the banks of the river Oxus. Encouraged by the King's interest in what he had found, M. Schlumberger got a permit to go to this site with a small group of scholars and they found themselves on what was the site of a Greek city--a large settlement in Bactria. Now at last at Al-Khanoun, right on the Soviet frontier, the French mission has discovered buildings of the Greeks.