Country Afghanistan Elevation 876 m University Takhar University | Local time Sunday 6:26 AM Number of airports 1 | |
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Time zone Afghanistan Standard Time (UTC+4:30) Weather 12°C, Wind E at 3 km/h, 90% Humidity | ||
Afghanistan tajiks and uzbeks fight in the streets of taloqan
Tāloqān (Persian/Pashto: طالقان, also transcribed Tāleqān or Tāluqān) is the capital of Takhar Province, in northeastern Afghanistan. It is located in the Taluqan District. The population was estimated as 196,400 in 2006.
Contents
- Afghanistan tajiks and uzbeks fight in the streets of taloqan
- Map of Taleqan Afghanistan
- History
- Recent history
- References
Map of Taleqan, Afghanistan
History
The old city to the west on the riverside was described by Marco Polo in 1275 CE as:
"a castle called Taikhan, where there is a great corn-market, and the country round is fine and fruitful. The hills that lie to the south of it are large and lofty. They all consist of white salt, extremely hard, with which the people for a distance of thirty days' journey round, come to provide themselves, for it is esteemed the purest that is found in the world. It is so hard, that it can be broken only with great iron hammers. The quantity is so great that all the countries of the earth might be supplied from thence."In 1603, Taloqan ("Talhan") was visited by another European explorer, Bento de Góis, who was traveling with a caravan from Kabul to Yarkand (then the capital of Kashgaria).
Recent history
Taloqan was the last major city to fall to the Taliban, in January 2001, after a siege which claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians. Its capture by the Taliban also triggered a mass exodus in the population, with civilians fleeing towards Imam Sahib and the Panjshir Valley. Irregular Northern Alliance soldiers managed to stop the Taliban advance to the north and to the east of the city, but weren't able to retake it. Taloqan was besieged again in a bloody siege in November 2001 by Northern Alliance soldiers, a mass grave containing the bodies of 70 women and children was found, they had been brutally murdered for no reason other than possibly being the families of captured fighters and were ethnic Pashtuns.