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16-682: The Koh-e Firoz plateau merges farther to the west by gentle gradients into the Paropamise , and which may be traced across the Hari River to Mashad . To the southwest of the culminating peaks, long spurs divide the upper tributaries of the Helmand River , and separate its basin from that of the Farah River . These spurs retain a considerable altitude, for they are marked by peaks exceeding 11,000 ft (3,400 m). They sweep in

32-573: A broad band of roughly parallel ranges to the southwest, preserving their general direction till they abut on the Great Registan desert to the west of Kandahar , where they terminate in a series of detached and broken anticlinals whose sides are swept by a sea of encroaching sand. The long, straight, level-backed ridges which divide the Argandab , the Tarnak and Arghastan valleys, and flank

48-750: A nearby river, probably the Obi river. The mountain range Selseleh-ye Safīd Kūh is also called Paropamisus or Paropamisus Mountains . Strabo describes the region as follows: The geographical position of the tribes is as follows: along the Indus are the Paropamisadae, above whom lies the Paropamisus mountain; then, towards the south, the Arachoti ; then next, towards the south, the Gedroseni , with

64-438: Is bordered by poplars and several charming villages. There is a mining camp high above the road at the bottom of the pass and almost any black stone picked from the side of the road in its vicinity will impress you with its weight. Piles of neatly stacked rock cleared from the fields impress one with the industry of these Afghan farmers. In the fall one may also see the ladies weaving in open fields beside their houses. The area

80-528: Is inhabited mostly by ethnic Hazara people followed by Tajiks , Pashtuns . There are also Sayyid households . Much of the population heavily depends on agriculture as their prime source of income and potato the prime crop. Paropamisadae#Name Paropamisadae or Parapamisadae ( Ancient Greek : Παροπαμισάδαι or Παροπανισάδαι ) was a satrapy of the Alexandrian Empire in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan , which largely coincided with

96-708: The Achaemenid province of Parupraesanna . It consisted of the districts of Sattagydia ( Bannu basin), Gandhara ( Kabul , Peshawar , and Taxila ), and Oddiyana ( Swat Valley ). Paruparaesanna is mentioned in the Akkadian language and Elamite language versions of the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great , whereas in the Old Persian version it is called Gandāra . The entire satrapy

112-457: The Hindu Kush . In many Greek and Latin sources, particularly editions of Ptolemy 's Geography where their realm is included on the 9th Map of Asia, the names of the people and region are given as Paropanisadae and Paropanisus . They also appeared less frequently as Parapamisadae and Parapamīsus ( Παραπάμισος , Parapámisos ), Paropamīsii , etc. The name was also applied to

128-742: The Kabul region , Gandhara and the northern regions such as Swat and Chitral . The nations who composed the Paropamisadae are recorded as the Cabolitae ( Καβολῖται ) in the north near modern Kabul ; the Parsii (Πάρσιοι) in the northwest, the Ambautae ( Ἀμβαῦται ) in the east and the Par(g)yetae ( Παρ(γ)υῆται ) in the south, who were also found in Arachosia. The major cities of the land were

144-697: The 3rd to the 1st centuries BC. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, the area came under control of the Seleucid Empire , which gave the region to the Mauryan Dynasty of India in 305 BC. After the fall of the Mauryans in 185 BC, the Greco-Bactrians under King Demetrius I annexed the northwestern regions of the former Mauryan Empire, including Paropamisus, and it became part of his Euthydemid Indo-Greek Kingdom . The Eucratidians seized

160-738: The Paropamisadae, on the west, are situated the Arii , and alongside the Arachoti and Gedrosii the Drangae ; but the Arii are situated alongside the Drangae on the north as well as on the west, almost surrounding a small part of their country. Thus the region was north of Arachosia , stretching up to the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountains , and bounded in the east by the Indus River . It mainly included

176-463: The area soon after the death of Menander I , but lost it to the Yuezhi around 125 BC. Selseleh-ye Saf%C4%ABd K%C5%ABh The Paropamisus Mountains (locally known as Selseleh-ye Safīd Kūh ) is a mountain range in north western Afghanistan stretching circa 300 mi (480 km) between the western extension of the Hindu Kush in the east (near Chaghcharan , also called Firozkoh) and following

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192-520: The city of Ortospana ( Ὀρτοσπάνα ) or Carura (Κάρουρα), probably identifiable with Kabul, Gauzaca (Γαύζακα), probably modern Ghazni , Capissa (Καπίσσα), modern-day Kapisa , and Parsia (Παρσία), the capital of the Parsii. In the ancient Buddhist texts, the Mahajanapada kingdom of Kamboja compassed the territories of Paropamisus and extended to the southwest of Kashmir as far as Rajauri . The region came under Achaemenid Persian control in

208-674: The late 6th century BC, either during the reign of Cyrus the Great or Darius I . In the 320s BC, Alexander the Great conquered the entire Achaemenid Empire , beginning the Hellenistic period . The Greek name Παροπαμισάδαι or Παροπαμισσός was used extensively in Greek literature to describe the conquests of Alexander and those of the kings of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom , from

224-560: The other tribes that occupy the seaboard; and the Indus lies, latitudinally, alongside these places; and of these places, in part, some that lie along the Indus are held by Indians, although they formerly belonged to the Persians. Alexander took these away from the Arians and established settlements of his own, but Seleucus I Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus , upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange 500 elephants. Alongside

240-593: The route from Kandahar to Ghazni . The high jagged peaks above the Hajigak Pass , blue-black and shining, shimmer in the sunlight for they contain an estimated reserve of 2 billion tons of iron ore; Asia's richest deposit. The very steep descent from the Hajigak Pass (3,700 m (12,100 ft)) with its numerous hairpin bends leads to the sparkling Kalu River, known locally as the Sauzao or Green Waters. It

256-588: Was subsequently ceded by Seleucus I Nicator to Chandragupta Maurya following a treaty. Paropamisadae is the Latinized form of the Greek name Paropamisádai ( Παροπαμισάδαι ), which is in turn derived from Old Persian Para-uparisaina , meaning "Beyond the Hindu Kush", where the Hindu Kush is referred to as Uparisaina ("higher than the eagle"). In the Greek language and Latin , "Paropamisus" ( Παροπαμισός , Paropamisós ) came to mean

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