| Salang Pass | |
|---|---|
 Salang tunnel view from the side | |
| Elevation | 3,878 m (12,723 ft) |
| Location | Afghanistan |
| Range | Hindu Kush |
| Coordinates | 35°18′49.44″N69°02′13.51″E / 35.3137333°N 69.0370861°E /35.3137333; 69.0370861 |
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TheSalang Pass (Dari:كتل سالنگKutal-i Salang, el. 3,878 m or 12,723 ft) is the primarymountain pass connecting northernAfghanistan withParwan Province, with onward connections toKabul Province, southern Afghanistan.[1] Located on the border ofParwan Province andBaghlan Province, it is just to the east of theKushan Pass, and both of them were of great importance in early times as they provided the most direct connections between the Kabul region with northern Afghanistan orTokharistan. TheSalang River originates nearby and flows south.
The pass crosses theHindu Kush mountains but is now bypassed through theSalang Tunnel, which runs underneath it at a height of about 3,400 m. The tunnel was built by engineers and construction crews from the Soviet Union in 1958 – 1964 as part of a wide-ranging infrastructure build out in Afghanistan carried out by the USSR. During the Afghan civil war it was blown up in 1997 by forces ofAhmad Shah Massoud in order to prevent Taliban fighters from coming through it. In 2002 theRussian Ministry Of Emergency Situations (RMES) organized the work to rebuild the tunnel and the repairs were completed within a month.[2]
It linksCharikar andKabul in the south withMazar-i-Sharif andKunduz in the north. Before the road and tunnel were built, the main route between Kabul and northern Afghanistan was via theShibar Pass, a much longer route which took three days.[1]
The road through the pass has carried heavy military traffic in recent conflicts and is in very bad repair.[1]
On February 9, 2010, the pass was hit by multipleavalanches.[3][4] According to press reports the road through the pass was hit by 17 avalanches, killing dozens, burying miles of highway, and trapping the vehicles in the Salang tunnel.By February 10, 2010, authorities had recovered over 160 bodies.[5]Radio Free Europe reported the first avalanche blocked the tunnel, and trapped vehicles in atraffic jam in a "deadly avalanche zone".
Heavy winds and rain set off 17 avalanches that buried more than two miles of highway at a high-altitude pass in the Hindu Kush mountain range, entombing hundreds of cars and cutting off Kabul's heavily traveled link to northern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.
A series of avalanches engulfed a mountain pass in Afghanistan, trapping hundreds of people in their buried cars and killing at least 24 people, authorities said Tuesday.
By the evening of February 10, authorities had recovered the bodies of more than 160 victims buried by a series of avalanches. The stories told to RFE/RL by survivors suggest the death toll could rise as search teams continue their work -- and when the spring thaw reveals the full extent of the tragedy. The first avalanche blocked the highway just south of the Salang Tunnel. As the traffic began to pile up, travelers in cars, trucks, and buses found themselves trapped in a deadly avalanche zone. Then, one after another, as many as 16 more avalanches wiped their vehicles off the road.
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