Kandahar,

Kandahar, or CANDAHAR, the capital of central or southern Afghanistan, situated about 200 miles to the SW. of Kabul. It stands in 32° 37' N. lat. and 66° 20' E. long., 3484 feet above the level of the sea. It is in the form of an oblong square, while all its streets run straight, and cut one another at right angles. At the point of intersection of the two main streets there is a large dome (Charsu), 50 yards in diameter. Pop. variously estimated from 25,000 to 100,000. Kandahar is well watered by two canals drawn from a neighbouring river, which send to almost every street its own adequate supply; and the same means of irrigation have covered the immediate vicinity with gardens and orchards. Kandahar is a place of great commerce, trading with Bombay, Herat, Bokhara, and Samarcand. Among its permanent residents Kandahar has a larger proportion of Afghans, chiefly of the Durani tribe, than any other city of Afghanistan. There are numerous Hindu, Tajik, and Persian merchants. About 2 miles to the northward rises a precipitous rock, crowned by a fortress impregnable to everything but heavy artillery. Here, amid all the disasters of the war in 1839-41, the British maintained their ground under Rawlinson. Kandahar has been a pivot for the history of that part of Asia during more than 2000 years. It is supposed to have been founded by Alexander the Great, although the name is Persian. A comparative blank of upwards of thirteen centuries in the history reaches to the famous Mahmud of Ghazni, who wrested the stronghold from the Afghans. From that epoch down to 1747, when the native rule was permanently established, Kandahar, with brief and precarious intervals of independence, was held by Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, and by various rulers of Tartary, India, and Persia in turn. In the war of 1878-80 the British entered Kandahar unopposed, and they held the city till 1881, some months after they had evacuated the rest of Afghanistan (q.v.). Through its being touched by the Sibi-Pishin Railway (1891) on the south, Kandahar has greatly increased in political as well as in commercial importance.