A cold war ahead

Top of the world

The Hindu Kush, the mountains of north and northeastern Afghanistan, are among the highest mountains in the world.

* How high? Mount Nowshak, at 24,557-feet, is 10,000 feet higher than the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States (14,494- foot Mount Whitney in California).

* How cold? The temperature can drop to 50 below zero in the mountains, so cold that eyelids crust and saliva turns to sludge in the mouth.

* First-person account: M.A. Ahrari, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Indian army, knows from bad experience what it is like to conduct operations in the mountains of Asia during some of the coldest winters on Earth.

"The weather is your enemy," said Ahrari, a veteran of Indian- Pakistani border confrontations in Kashmir. "The limbs and joints become stiff. It is very difficult to move about. One feels very sleepy all the time."

Khyber Pass

Khyber Pass has long played a strategic role in historic wars. Among them:

* Alexander the Great sent his supply trains through the pass in 327 B.C., then skirted northward with his army to Konar Valley where he was wounded and nearly killed.

* Genghis Khan and the great Mughal emperors began passing through the pass in the 12th century and eventually created a huge empire that included Afghanistan.

* The Afghan Wars (1839-42, 1878-81) pitted Great Britain against Russia for control of Central Asia and India. The pass was the fulcrum of this long dispute.

Afghanistan's mile-high city

Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, sits at 5,875 feet, nearly 600 feet higher than America's mile-high city, Denver.

In comparison, the summit of Mount Spokane is 8 feet lower than Kabul.

Kabul can see as much as 25 inches of snow on the ground in February, although it is predominantly dry.

Other elevations

Feet Feet

Mazar-e-Sharif 1,240

Waitsburg, Wash. 1,260

Kandahar 3,500

Fourth of July Pass, Idaho 3,600

Herat 3,052

Stampede Pass, Wash. 3,072

Jalalabad 1,960

Spokane 2,000

Chaghcharan 7,576

Fisher Peak, Idaho 7670

How we size up

Afghanistan is a country often described as being roughly the same size as Texas. Here is a direct comparison with our region:

Afghanistan: 251,825 square miles

Washington, Idaho: 154,211 total sq. miles

Distance comparisons

* Kabul to Kandahar by road is a distance of 341 miles, roughly equivalent to driving from Spokane to Portland (354 miles), or Coeur d'Alene to Great Falls, Mont. (333 miles). Driving time is described as two days in Afghanistan vs. six hours to Portland.

* Kabul to Jalalabad is 93 miles, roughly equivalent to driving from Liberty Lake to Bonner's Ferry, Idaho (95 miles).

Copyright 2001 Cowles Publishing Company
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.