Wakhan

37°07′45″N 73°37′07″E / 37.129240°N 73.618680°E / 37.129240; 73.618680 Wakhan (Dari; Pashto: واخان), also spelt as Vakhan and Vakhon (Tajik: Вахон), is a rugged, mountainous part of the Pamir Mountains, Hindu Kush and Karakoram ranges in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Today most of Wakhan is part of Wakhan District, Badakhshan Province in northeastern Afghanistan, rest being in Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan. Historically, the Wakhan has been an important region for thousands of years as it is where the western and eastern portions of Central Asia meet. As a source of major rivers flowing toward Central Asia, Wakhan has been an important part of many powerful Islamic empires such as the Samanid Empire, Ghaznavid Empire, Ghurid Empire, Khwarazmian Empire, Timurid Empire and so on. This mountainous terrain was historically used as one of the trade routes between Kabul and Kashgar. Western Wakhan (休密 Xiumi) is believed to have been conquered in the early part of the 1st century CE by Kujula Kadphises, the first "Great Kushan," and was one of the five xihou or principalities that formed the nucleus of the original Kushan kingdom. Wakhan was administered by the Kushan indirectly through semi-independent rulers who oversaw trade on the Buddhist Route of the Silk Road. Although the terrain is extremely rugged, the Corridor was historically used as a trading route between Kabul and Kashgar. It appears that Alexander the Great, Song Yun, Huisheng, Xuanzang, Marco Polo, and many others came this way. The Portuguese Jesuit priest Bento de Goes crossed from the Wakhan to China between 1602 and 1606.