Spīn Ghar
The Spīn Ghar[1][2] (Pashto: سپین غر) or Safēd Kōh[3][4][5] (Dari: سفیدکوه, less used in this area) meaning both White Mountains, or sometimes (Pashto: Selseleh-ye Safīd Kūh[6]) meaning white mountain range, is a mountain range to the south of the Hindu Kush. It ranges from eastern Afghanistan into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, and forms a natural border between the two areas. Its highest peak is Mount Sikaram on the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, which towers above all surrounding hills to 4,755 m (15,600 ft) above mean sea level.[7] The lower hills are mostly barren and treeless, but pine grows on the main mountains that form the East Afghan montane conifer forests.
This article is about the Mountain range in eastern Afghanistan. For other mountain ranges in Afghanistan, see Safēd Kōh.Spīn Ghar / Safed Koh
Mount Sikaram, Afghanistan–Pakistan Border
4,755 m (15,600 ft)
Afghanistan and Pakistan
Nangarhar, Logar, Paktia in Afghanistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan
Geology[edit]
The White Mountains are part of the western rim that separates the Indian subcontinent from the Eurasian plate.
The base of the mountains consists of Proterozoic gneisses and granites with admixtures of gabbros, mafic metavolcanic rocks, marble and migmatites. On the summit there are cirque glaciers, some of which are filled with scree.[12]
On the southern flank of the Sikaram Sar follow from 2500 m from bottom to top: alluvial soils in valleys, limestone and dolomite up to 4000 m, an intermediate zone of slate at 4000 m, above crystalline rock.[13]
Agriculture and forestry[edit]
Above the nearly barren lower slopes, forests of pine and deodar cedar thrived on the main range, but devastation during the Afghan civil wars reduced timber resources. The valleys still support some agriculture.
The rivers of the White Mountains serve the irrigation of the fields in the densely populated river valleys,[15] which allows the pelvis of Jalalabad multiple harvests. Wheat, maize, various types of vegetables (onions, green beans, okra, tomatoes, etc.), cotton, opium poppies, lemons, sugar cane, and olives are also grown around Jalalabad.[16][17][18] The Bara high valley in the southeast of the range is one of the most intensively used agricultural areas of the Pakistani tribal areas under Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Older reports speak of rich orchards in the valleys of Spīn Ghar with mulberry and pomegranate trees.[19]
Wood from the eastern Afghan forests has been exported mainly to Pakistan since the 19th century, and in increasingly irresponsible quantities, so that Afghanistan imposed a complete export ban in 1975, which smugglers circumvented.[20][21] In addition to the actual forestry there is or was a collection economy for pistachio nuts and the edible seeds of Pinus gerardiana.[22]
History[edit]
The Durand Line border formed in 1893 between Afghanistan and British India cuts through these mountains.
According to US military intelligence, many al-Qaeda fighters, including Osama bin Laden, crossed the Spīn Ghar to escape to Pakistan during the Tora Bora offensive in 2001. Bin Laden hid in the sparsely vegetated mountains in the northern part, called Tora Bora. After 2004, the Spīn Ghar mountain range was a pivotal place and theater of many battles fought between the foreign fighters of al-Qaeda and the joint Northern Command of the Pakistani military, with the latter trying to prevent the foreign fighters' incursion into Pakistan.