Tang-e Gharu, also known as Tang-e Gharo (

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

: تنگ غارو), is a gorge and a mountain pass 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

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 ...

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 ...

. The

Kabul River The Kabul River (; ), the classical Cophen , is a river that emerges in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush mountains in the northeastern part of Maidan Wardak Province, Afghanistan. It is separated from the watershed of the Helmand River by th ...

passes through the gorge, flowing eastward. The Kabul–Jalalabad Road runs through the gorge, parallel to the river. Construction on the road began in the 1940s and was completed in the 1960s, replacing the ancient Lataband Pass in the Karkacha hills connecting

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 ...

and

Jalalabad Jalalabad (; Help:IPA/Persian, ͡ʒä.lɑː.lɑː.bɑːd̪ is the list of cities in Afghanistan, fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 200,331, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part ...

to Pakistan. Both the pass and the road are considered to be of major strategic importance, as they provide Afghanistan a connection to

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# ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Due to heavy usage during recent conflicts in Afghanistan and frequent traffic accidents, the pass and the surrounding areas have become heavily damaged and periodically closed off.

Geology

The cliffs of Tang-e Gharu gorge are a blue-grey

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

, which was formed some 250 million years ago. However, the gorge itself is only about 2 million years old and was formed as a combination of water

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

from the river and the collapse of an underground river channel.

References

Mountain passes of the Hindu Kush Afghanistan–Soviet Union relations Pakistan–Soviet Union relations {{Kabul-geo-stub