Sharana () is the capital of

Paktika Province Paktika (Pashto: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000 residents, who are mostly ethnic Pashtuns but sma ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. It is located at an altitude of 2,200 meters. Its population was estimated to be 2,200 in 2006. The city of Sharana has a population of 15,651 (in 2015) and is located within the heartland of the

Sulaimankhel The Sulaimankhel (), or Suleiman Khel, are a Pashtun sub-tribe of the Khilji tribe. As they are primarily Nomadic People. In the early 20th century, the tribe was recognized as generally pastoral. History In 1924, Sulaimankhel took part in t ...

tribe of

Ghilji The Ghiljī (, ; ) also spelled Khilji, Khalji, or Ghilzai and Ghilzay (), are one of the largest Pashtuns, Pashtun tribes. Their traditional homeland is Ghazni and Qalati Ghilji in Afghanistan but they have also settled in other regions throu ...

Pashtuns Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghan (ethnon ...

. It has 6 districts and a total land area of 5,893 hectares. The total number of dwellings in this city are 1,739. On 14 August 2021, Sharana was seized by

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

fighters, becoming the twentieth provincial capital to be captured by the Taliban as part of the wider

2021 Taliban offensive The 2021 Taliban offensive was a Offensive (military), military offensive by the Taliban insurgent group and allied militants that led to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the end of the nearly 20-year War in Afghanistan (200 ...

Climate

With an influence from the local steppe climate, Sharana features a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

(''BSk'') under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

. The average temperature in Sharana is 10.8 °C, while the annual precipitation averages 265 mm. September is the driest month with 1 mm of rainfall, while March, the wettest month, has an average precipitation of 54 mm. July is the warmest month of the year with an average temperature of 23.6 °C. The coldest month January has an average temperature of -4.5 °C, with the average lows at -10.9 °C.

Land use

Barren land and agriculture account for 73% of total land. Sharana has the largest share of land classified as institutional (14%) of any Afghan provincial capital.

References

Populated places in Paktika Province Provincial capitals in Afghanistan {{Paktika-geo-stub

Climate

Land use

See also

References