| Wakhan Corridor | |||||||||||||
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 Wakhan Corridor | |||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 瓦罕走廊 | ||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 瓦罕走廊 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Wakhan Corridor | ||||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 阿富汗走廊 | ||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 阿富汗走廊 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Afghan Corridor | ||||||||||||
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| Second alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 瓦罕帕米尔 | ||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 瓦罕帕米爾 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Wakhan Pamir | ||||||||||||
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| Uyghur name | |||||||||||||
| Uyghur | ۋاخان كارىدورى | ||||||||||||
| Pashto name | |||||||||||||
| Pashto | دهلېز واخان | ||||||||||||
| Urdu name | |||||||||||||
| Urdu | واخان راہداری | ||||||||||||
TheWakhan Corridor (Pashto:واخان دهلېز,romanized: Wāxān Dahlez;Dari:دالان واخان,romanized: Dālān-i Wāxān) is apanhandle in theBadakhshan province ofAfghanistan, encompassing itsWakhan District. This corridor stretches eastward, connecting Afghanistan toXinjiang,China. It also separates theGorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region ofTajikistan in the north from theKhyber Pakhtunkhwa inPakistan andGilgit-Baltistan region that is administered by Pakistan in the south.[1][2][3][4][5][a] This high mountain valley, which rises to a maximum altitude of 4,923 m (16,152 ft), serves as the source of both thePanj andPamir rivers, which converge to form the largerAmu Darya River. For countless centuries, a vital trade route has traversed this valley, facilitating the movement of travelers to and from East, South, and Central Asia.[6]
The corridor was formed out of theWakhan Mirdom after the signing of the 1893Durand Line Agreement and the1895 Pamir Boundary Commission protocols,[7][8][9] so that theRussian Turkestan dominion, nowTajikistan, wouldnot touch British dominion, nowPakistan.[10][11] This agreement also created theDurand Line, which today forms the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.[12] It was previously conquered byAhmad Shah Durrani of theDurrani Empire in 1763.[13] Its eastern end bordered China's Xinjiang region, then claimed by theQing dynasty.
The corridor is today theWakhan District of Badakhshan Province. As of 2024, the district has an estimated population of 18,000 residents.[14][15] The northern part of the Wakhan, populated by theWakhi,Pamiri andKyrgyz peoples,[16] is also referred to as thePamir. The closest major airport isFayzabad Airport in the city ofFayzabad to the west, which is accessible by the road network.
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At its western entrance, near the Afghan town ofIshkashim, the corridor is 18 km (11 mi) wide.[4] The western third of the corridor varies in width (13–30 km (8–19 mi)) and widens to 65 km (40 mi) in the central Wakhan.[4] At its eastern end, the corridor forks into two prongs that wrap around a salient of Chinese territory, forming the 92 km (57 mi) boundary between the two countries.[4] TheWakhjir Pass on theAfghanistan–China border, which is the easternmost point on the southeastern prong, is about 300 km (190 mi) from Ishkashim.[4] The easternmost point of the northeastern prong is a nameless wilderness about 350 km (220 mi) from Ishkashim.[4] On the Chinese side of the border is theTashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County ofXinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The northern border of the corridor is defined by thePamir River and LakeZorkul in the west, and the high peaks of the Pamir Mountains in the east. To the north is Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. To the south, the corridor is bounded by the high mountains of theHindu Kush andKarakoram. Along its southern flank, two mountain passes connect the corridor to neighboring regions. TheBroghil Pass provides access to Pakistan'sKhyber Pakhtunkhwa region, while theIrshad Pass links the corridor to Gilgit-Baltistan. The Dilisang Pass, which also connects to Gilgit-Baltistan, is disused.[18] The easternmost pass, as indicated above, is theWakhjir Pass, which connects to China and is the only border connection between that country and Afghanistan.
The corridor is higher in the east than in the west; (the Wakhjir Pass is 4,923 m (16,152 ft) in elevation) and descends to about 3,037 m (9,964 ft) at Ishkashim.[19] The Wakhjir River emerges from an ice cave on the Afghan side of the Wakhjir Pass and flows west, joining the Bozai Darya near the village ofBazai Gumbad to form theWakhan River. The Wakhan River then joins the Pamir River nearQala-i-Panjah to form thePanj River, which then flows out of the Wakhan Corridor at Ishkashim.
The Chinese considerChalachigu Valley, the valley east of Wakhjir Pass on the Chinese side connectingTaghdumbash Pamir, to be part of the Wakhan Corridor. The high mountain valley is about 100 km (60 mi) long. This valley, through which the Tashkurgan River flows, is generally about 3–5 km (2–3 mi) wide and less than 1 km (0.6 mi) at its narrowest point.[20] This entire valley on the Chinese side is closed to visitors; however, local residents and herders from the area are permitted access.[21]
Although the terrain is extremely rugged, the Corridor was historically used as a trading route betweenKabul andKashgar.[22][23] It appears thatAlexander the Great,Song Yun,Huisheng,Xuanzang,Marco Polo, and many others came this way.[24] The Portuguese Jesuit priestBento de Goes crossed from the Wakhan to China between 1602 and 1606. The area was visited under the watchful eyes of the Russians byThomas Edward Gordon in 1874,[25] and in 1891 byFrancis Younghusband,[26] followed byLord Curzon in 1894.[27] While visiting Wakhan in May 1906,Aurel Stein reported that 100 pony loads of goods crossed annually to China.[28]
Early travellers used one of three routes:
The corridor is, in part, a political creation from theGreat Game between British India and Russian Empire. In the north, an agreement between the empires in 1873 effectively split the historic region ofWakhan by making the Panj and Pamir Rivers the border between Afghanistan and the then-Russian Empire.[4] In the south, theDurand Line Agreement of 1893 marked the boundary between Afghanistan and British India (now Pakistan). This left a narrow strip of land ruled by Afghanistan as abuffer zone between the two empires, which became known as the Wakhan Corridor in the 20th century.[30]
The corridor has been closed to regular traffic for over a century[19] and there is no modern, asphalted road. There is a rough road fromIshkashim toSarhad, Afghanistan[31] built in the 1960s[32] and improved in the 2020s,[16] but only rough paths beyond. These paths run some 100 km (60 mi) from the road end to the Chinese border at Wakhjir Pass, and further to the far end of theLittle Pamir.
Jacob Townsend has speculated on the possibility ofdrug smuggling from Afghanistan to China via the Wakhan Corridor and Wakhjir Pass, but concluded that due to the difficulties of travel and border crossings, it would be minor compared to that conducted via Tajikistan'sGorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province or through Pakistan, both having much more accessible routes into China.[33]
The remoteness of the region has meant that, despite the long-runningwars of Afghanistan since the late 1970s, the region has remained virtually untouched by conflict, and many locals, mostly composed of ethnicPamir andKyrgyz, are not aware of the wars in the country.[34]
TheIslamic Republic of Afghanistan asked thePeople's Republic of China on several occasions to open the border in the Wakhan Corridor for economic reasons or as an alternative supply route for fighting theTaliban insurgency. The Chinese resisted, largely due tounrest in its far western province of Xinjiang, which borders the corridor.[35][36] In December 2009[update], it was reported that the United States had asked China to open the corridor.[37]
In July 2021, the area came under theTaliban control for the first time during the group'ssummer offensive.[38] It was reported that hundreds of ethnic Kyrgyz nomads along with their livestock attempted to flee north into Tajikistan.[39] The corridor is patrolled by forces of theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which took over responsibility from the previousNATO-trainedAfghan National Security Forces.[40][41]
As of June 2023, there had been discussions between the foreign ministers of China and Afghanistan concerning the opening of the strategically significant corridor to enhance the trade ties betweenBeijing andKabul. Afghanistan's Foreign MinisterAmir Khan Muttaqi and Chinese Foreign MinisterWang Yi both met on the sidelines in Tibet during the third Trans-Himalaya Forum for International Cooperation, to discuss the possibilities of improving trade ties.[42] Though the Taliban government finished a 50-km road through the corridor to reach the Chinese border, Beijing seems disinclined to open the border, due to security concerns.[43][44] By 2025, China had also constructed a high, green fence along the border.[16] The Taliban has been highly secretive about the construction of the road, but the road and its approaches appeared to improve trade and living standards substantially for the Corridor's native inhabitants, according to one Austrian journalist.[16]
In 2024 an independent analysis conducted at theUniversity of Texas at Austin which relied onopen source intelligence suggested the corridor consists of, "primarily dirt roads and footpaths that abruptly end before reaching the border."[45]
The Sino-Afghan border was delimited in a secret treaty signed on November 1963. The corridor shares a border with Pakistan to its south and Tajikistan to its north.
In addition, the Soviet Union is separated from Pakistani territory by a small strip commonly known as the Wakhan corridor. Theoretically the Soviet Union does not have a common border with Pakistan but in view of their close linkage with Afghanistan and the shortness of Wakhan's breadth make it an immediate neighbour for all practical purposes.
The Chitral and Kalash valleys of the Hindu Kush Mountains are located north of the Swat Valley in the Chitral district of the North-West Frontier Province and are bordered by Afghanistan on the north, south, and west. The Wakhan Corridor separates Pakistan from Tajikistan. The corridor, wedged between thePamir Mountains to the north and theKarakoram range to the south, is about 350 km (220 mi) long and 13–65 kilometres (8–40 mi) wide.
37°N73°E / 37°N 73°E /37; 73
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