Qunduz

Kunduz کندز
Province
An aerial view from the window of a Blackhawk helicopter between Balkh Province and Kunduz Province
Map of Afghanistan with Kunduz highlighted
Coordinates (Capital): 36°48′N 68°48′E / 36.8°N 68.8°E / 36.8; 68.8Coordinates: 36°48′N 68°48′E / 36.8°N 68.8°E / 36.8; 68.8
Country	Afghanistan
Capital	Kunduz
Government
• Governor	Asadullah Omarkhail
Area
• Total	8,040 km2 (3,100 sq mi)
Population (2012)
• Total	953,800
• Density	120/km2 (310/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+4:30
ISO 3166 code	AF-KDZ
Main languages	Dari Pashto Uzbek Turkmen

Kunduz (Pashto/Persian: کندز‎‎) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northern part of the country next to Tajikistan. The population of the province is around 953,800, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a tribal society. The city of Kunduz serves as the capital of the province. The Kunduz Airport is located next to the provincial capital.

The Kunduz River valley dominates the Kunduz Province. The river flows irregularly from south to north into the Amu Darya river which forms the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. A newly constructed bridge crosses the Amu Darya at Sher Khan Bandar. The river, its tributaries, and derivative canals provide irrigation to the irrigated fields that dominate land usage in the agricultural province. There are also rain-fed fields and open range land that span several miles.

The area has been part of many empires in the past. It became part of the Afghan Durrani Empire in the mid-18th century. It saw major migration from Russian Turkestan in the north during the early 1920s. During the governance of Sher Khan Nasher, Kunduz became one of the wealthiest of Afghanistan's provinces, mainly due to Nasher's founding of the Spinzar Cotton Company, which continues to exist in post-war Afghanistan in the early 20th century.

Between one hundred and two-hundred thousand Tajiks and Uzbeks fled the conquest of their homeland by Russian Red Army and settled in northern Afghanistan.

During the war in Afghanistan Kunduz was captured by NATO forces. In November 2001, members of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, along with Pakistani military personnel and Afghan sympathizers were airlifted to Pakistan to evade NATO capture in the Kunduz Airlift.