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Afghanistan Geography 2018

SOURCE: 2018 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK AND OTHER SOURCES











Afghanistan Geography 2018
SOURCE: 2018 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK AND OTHER SOURCES


Page last updated on February 28, 2018

Location:
Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran

Geographic coordinates:
33 00 N, 65 00 E

Map references:
Asia

Area:
total: 652,230 sq km
[see also: Area - total country ranks ]
land: 652,230 sq km
[see also: Area - land country ranks ]
water: 0 sq km
[see also: Area - water country ranks ]
country comparison to the world: 42

Area - comparative:
almost six times the size of Virginia; slightly smaller than Texas
Area comparison map: almost six times the size of Virginia; slightly smaller than Texas

Land boundaries:
total: 5,987 km
[see also: Land boundaries - total country ranks ]
border countries (6): China 91 km, Iran 921 km, Pakistan 2,670 km, Tajikistan 1,357 km, Turkmenistan 804 km, Uzbekistan 144 km

Coastline:
0 km (landlocked)
[see also: Coastline country ranks ]

Maritime claims:
none (landlocked)

Climate:
arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers
More Climate Details

Terrain:
mostly rugged mountains; plains in north and southwest

Elevation:
mean elevation: 1,884 m
[see also: Elevation - mean elevation country ranks ]
elevation extremes: lowest point: Amu Darya 258 m highest point: Noshak 7,492 m

Natural resources:
natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones, arable land

Land use:
agricultural land: 58.07% arable land 20.5%; permanent crops 0.37%; permanent pasture 79%
[see also: Land use - agricultural land country ranks ]
forest: 2.07%
[see also: Land use - forest country ranks ]
other: 39.86% (2014 est.)
[see also: Land use - other country ranks ]

Irrigated land:
32,080 sq km (2012)
[see also: Irrigated land country ranks ]

Population - distribution:
populations tend to cluster in the foothills and periphery of the rugged Hindu Kush range; smaller groups are found in many of the country's interior valleys; in general, the east is more densely settled while the south is sparsely populated

Natural hazards:
damaging earthquakes occur in Hindu Kush mountains; flooding; droughts

Environment - current issues:
limited natural freshwater resources; inadequate supplies of potable water; soil degradation; overgrazing; deforestation (much of the remaining forests are being cut down for fuel and building materials); desertification; air and water pollution

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection
signed, but not ratified: Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note:
landlocked; the Hindu Kush mountains that run northeast to southwest divide the northern provinces from the rest of the country; the highest peaks are in the northern Vakhan (Wakhan Corridor)


NOTE: 1) The information regarding Afghanistan on this page is re-published from the 2018 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Afghanistan Geography 2018 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Afghanistan Geography 2018 should be addressed to the CIA.
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may habe the following issues:
  a) The assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
  b) The CIA sometimes assignes counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order






This page was last modified 28-Feb-18
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