Takhar lies in north-eastern Afghanistan between the plains of Kunduz and the mountains of Badakhshan, with the Amu Darya forming its northern border with Tajikistan. Its name recalls Tokharistan, the old name for this part of ancient Bactria. The present province was created in 1964, when the large northern province of Qataghan was divided into Baghlan, Kunduz and Takhar. Its capital is Taloqan.
Rivers, plains and mountains
The Takhar River and its canals water a broad plain around Taloqan, where irrigated fields can sometimes carry two crops a year; the river is part of the wider Kunduz basin. In the east, the Kokcha comes down from Badakhshan to join the Amu Darya. To the south the land rises through soft loess hills to the high valley of Warsaj, while upland plains such as Kalafgan have fertile soil but little water.
Farmers have long grown rice, wheat and cotton in rotation with fodder, potatoes and vegetables, and kept cattle for meat and ploughing. In Kalafgan, pistachio woodland is being replanted.
Ai-Khanoum, the city on the Oxus
Where the Kokcha meets the Amu Darya lie the ruins of Ai-Khanoum — Uzbek for “Lady Moon” — a Greek colonial city excavated by French archaeologists from 1965. It belonged to a Hellenistic state born of Alexander’s conquest of Central Asia and centred on Bactria, which became an independent kingdom around 250 BCE and stayed under Greek rule until about 150 BCE, when nomads from the northern steppes destroyed the city.
The roughly triangular city, about 1,800 by 1,600 metres, had a gymnasium, a theatre, a fountain and Corinthian columns, alongside temples built on Iranian and Mesopotamian plans. In one shrine stood a copy of the Delphic maxims, the moral sayings of Greek wisdom. Part of the city’s wealth came from its mountain hinterland, rich in minerals and gemstones such as rubies and lapis.
Salt, markets and people
Marco Polo wrote of “Taican” — identified by his editor Henry Yule as Taloqan — as a fortified place with a great grain market, and mountains of salt to the south so hard it had to be broken with iron picks. Yule adds that the castle of Taloqan held out against Chinggis Khan for seven months in 1221, and his notes record a salt mine at Chal. Today mines such as Takcha Khana still supply salt to Takhar and much of northern Afghanistan.
Takhar is home to Tajiks, Uzbeks, Pashtuns and Hazaras, and most people live in villages. Dari and Uzbek are the main languages, and the weekly markets of Taloqan draw people in from the surrounding districts.