The Kushan Pass or Kaoshan Pass (el. about 4,370 m or 14,340 ft) is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

just west of the famous Salang Pass (3,878 m. or 12,723 ft.) in the

Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central Asia, Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and eastern Afghanistan into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan. The range forms the wester ...

mountain range of northern

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 ...

. These two passes provided the most direct, if difficult, routes across the imposing east–west wall of the

mountains which divide northern

Tokharistan Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is a historical name used by Islamic sources in the early Middle Ages to refer to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources. By the 6 ...

from

Kabul province Kabul (Dari/Pashto: ), situated in the east of the country, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. The capital of the province is Kabul city, which is Afghanistan's capital and largest city. The population of the Kabul Province is ...

, which is closely connected to southern Afghanistan and

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. Nowadays, the

Salang tunnel The Salang Tunnel ( ''Tūnel-e Sālang'', ''Da Sālang Tūnel'') is a tunnel located at the Salang Pass in northern Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about north of the nation's capital, Kabul. At nearly above sea level, the tunnel work was ...

constructed by the Soviets in the 1960s, and the paved road through it make it by far the easiest route through the Hindu Kush Mountains. Vincent Smith states that

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

took his troops across both the Khawak Pass and the Kaoshān or Kushan Pass.

"Towards the close of spring in the year 327 B.C. when the sun had sufficiently melted the snows, he lexanderled his army, including perhaps fifty or sixty thousand Europeans, across the lofty Khāwak and Kaoshān passes of the Hindu Kush, or Indian Caucasus, and after ten days' toil amidst the mountains emerged in the rich valley now known as the Koh-i-Daman."

However, according to some scholars, there is really no proof for this. It seems probable that the pass was named after the Kushan dynasty which had a number of important sites in the region of Baghlan, to the north of the passes (dating from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE), including the majestic fortified dynastic temple of Surkh Kotal and Rabatak where the fascinating

Rabatak inscription The Rabatak Inscription is a stone inscribed with text written in the Bactrian language and Greek script, found in 1993 at Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan. The inscription relates to the rule of the Kushan emperor Kanishka, and gives ...

listing the names of the early Kushan kings, and providing evidence on the date of the beginning of the

Kanishka Kanishka I, also known as Kanishka the Great, was an emperor of the Kushan dynasty, under whose reign (–150 CE) the empire reached its zenith. He is famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements. A descendant of Kujula Kadp ...

era was found a few years ago—which is now commonly thought to have begun around 127 CE. It seems it is the Yangi-Yuli, or "New Road" of

Babur Babur (; 14 February 148326 December 1530; born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also ...

(1483–1530), the conqueror of northern India and founder of the

Mughal Dynasty The Mughal dynasty () or the House of Babur (), was a Central Asian dynasty of Turco-Mongol tradition, Turco-Mongol origin that ruled large parts of the Indian subcontinent from the early 16th to the 19th century. The dynasty was a cadet branch ...

.Wood (1872), p. lxxiv. Both the Kushan and Khawak passes, so important for the early history of Afghanistan, are now bypassed by the paved road that runs through the

under the Salang Pass, completed by the

Soviets The Soviet people () were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" (). Nationality policy in the Soviet Union ...

in 1964, at a height of about 3,400 m. It links Charikar and

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

with

Kunduz Kunduz (; ; ) is a city in northern Afghanistan and the capital of Kunduz Province. The city has an estimated population of about 268,893 as of 2015, making it about the List of cities in Afghanistan, seventh largest city of Afghanistan, and the ...

, Khulm, Mazari Sharif and Termez.

Footnotes

References

*Hill, John E. (2015) ''Through the Jade Gate - China to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes 1st to 2nd Centuries CE'', Vols. I and II. John E. Hill. CreateSpace, North Charleston, South Carolina. ; 978–1503384620. *Smith, Vincent A. (1908) ''The Early History of India''. Oxford. The Clarendon Press. *Vogelsang, Willem. (2002) ''The Afghans''. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford. *Wood, John (1872) ''A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus. With an essay on the Geography of the Valley of the Oxus by Colonel Henry Yule''. London: John Murray. {{coord missing, Afghanistan Mountain passes of Afghanistan Landforms of Baghlan Province Landforms of Kabul Province Landforms of Parwan Province