Salang Pass
| Salang Pass | |
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A twisting road at the Salang Pass
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| Elevation | 3,878 m (12,723 ft) |
| Location | Afghanistan |
| Range | Hindu Kush |
| Coordinates | 35°18′49.44″N 69°02′13.51″E / 35.3137333°N 69.0370861°ECoordinates: 35°18′49.44″N 69°02′13.51″E / 35.3137333°N 69.0370861°E |
The Salang Pass (Persian: كتل سالنگ, el. 3,878 m or 12,723 ft) is nowadays the major mountain pass connecting northern Afghanistan with Parwan Province, with further connections to Kabul Province and southern Afghanistan, and to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Located on the border of Parwan Province and Baghlan Province, it is just to the east of the Kushan Pass, and both of them were of great importance in early times as they provided the most direct connections between the Kabul region with northern Afghanistan or Tokharistan. The Salang River originates nearby and flows south.
The pass crosses the Hindu Kush mountains but is now bypassed through the Salang Tunnel, which runs underneath it at a height of about 3,400 m. It links Charikar and Kabul in the south with Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz in the north. Before the road and tunnel were built, the main route between Kabul and northern Afghanistan was via the Shibar Pass, a much longer route which took three days.
The road through the pass has carried heavy military traffic in recent conflicts and is in very bad repair.
On 3 November 1982, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, there was a huge fire in the tunnel which at the time was filled with Soviet military convoys. A very large, but unknown number, of Soviet troops were killed in the Salang tunnel fire.
On February 9, 2010, the pass was hit by multiple avalanches. According to press reports the road through the pass was hit by 17 avalanches, killing dozens, burying miles of highway, and trapping the vehicles in the Salang tunnel. By February 10, 2010 authorities had recovered over 160 bodies.Radio Free Europe reports the first avalanche blocked the tunnel, and trapped vehicles in a traffic jam in a "deadly avalanche zone".
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Wikipedia