Mazar-e Sharif remained peaceful for the next one hundred years. In 1979 then neighboring Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. During the 1980s Soviet war, Mazari Sharif was a strategic base for the Soviet Army.
Between May and July 1997, the Taliban unsuccessfully attempted to take Mazar. About 3,000 Taliban soldiers were killed by Abdul Malik and his Shia followers. The Taliban returned on August 8, 1998 and led a six-day killing frenzy of Hazaras. Soon after, the city was occupied and taken over by the Taliban.
Following 9/11, Mazar Sharif was the first Afghan city to fall to the Northern Alliance (United Front). The Taliban's defeat in Mazar quickly turned into defeat from the rest of the north and west of Afghanistan. On November 9, 2001 the city was captured by the Afghan Northern Alliance forces after the Battle of Mazar e Sharif with help from the United States Special Operations Forces and bombing by U.S. Air Force aircraft. As many as 2,000 Taliban fighters who surrendered were reportedly massacred by the Northern Alliance after the battle. Reports also place U.S. ground troops at the scene of the massacre.
There are also NATO peacekeeping forces in and around the city providing assistance to the Afghan government.
On April 1, 2011, as many as ten foreign employees working for United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) were killed by angry demonstrators in the city. The demonstration was organized in retaliation to the March 21 Qur'an-burning in Florida, United States.
The climate in Mazari Sharif is very hot during the summer. Daily temperatures are over 40°C or 104 degree Fahrenheit in June and July. The winters are cold with temperatures falling below freezing.
The population of Mazari Sharif is around 375,000. It is a multiethnic and multilingual society.
The main language in Mazari Sharif is Dari (Persian) followed by Pashto. Both are the official languages of Afghanistan.
The city is a centre for the traditional buzkashi sport, and the Blue Mosque is the focus of Afghanistan's Nawroz celebration.
Mazar-e Sharif serves as the major trading center in northern Afghanistan. It was the first city to connect itself by rail with a neighboring country. The rail service from Mazar-e Sharif to Uzbekistan began in 2011 and is expected to rapidly boost the economy of the city. Cargo on freight trains arrives to the last station near Mazar-i-Sharif Airport, where the goods are reloaded onto trucks or airplanes and sent to their last destinations across Afghanistan.
The local economy is mainly trade, agriculture and karakul production. Some oil and gas have also boosted the city's economy.
The modern city of Mazar-i Sharif is centered around the Shrine of Hazrat Ali. Much restored, it is one of Afghanistan's most glorious monuments. Outside Mazar-i Sharif lies the ancient city of Balkh.
Badakhshan Province
Badakhshan (Persian: بدخشان - "Badakhshān") is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It has 28 Districts. The capital is Feyzabad. It is located in the north-east of the country, between the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya.
Badakhshan is bordered by Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province and Khatlon Province in Tajikistan to the north and east. In the east is the Wakhan Corridor. The province has a total area of 44,059 km². Much of the land is the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges.
Badakhshan is one of the poorest areas in the world. Opium poppy growing is the only real source of income in the province.
Lapis lazuli has been mined in the Sar-e-Sang mines for over 6,000 years. The mines were the largest and most well-known source in ancient times.
The population of the province is estimated at 889,700 people. The majority of them are Persian-speaking Tajiks.
The residents of the province are largely Sunni.
The province is represented in Afghan domestic cricket competitions by the Badakhshan Province cricket team.
Fayzabad, Badakhshan
Fayzabad (also spelled Feyzabad, Fazelabad or Faizabad) () is the provincial capital and largest city in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan. There are around 50,000 people. It is the main commercial and administrative center of the Pamir region.
Fayzabad is in northeast Afghanistan. The city is located on the right bank of the Kokcha River.
Fayzabad has been separate from other parts of the country because of the lack of paved roads. There are two active bazaars in the city where items as different as cotton, cotton cloth and goods, salt, sugar, tea, indigo, and cutlery are traded.
The majority of the people are Tajiks. There also are some Pashtun, Uzbek and Turkmen.
There are a number of mosques and shrines of historical importance in the city.
The city has several schools including an all-girls school. There is also a hospital which is considered the best in the province, and a police station. There is a guest house called Lapis Lazuli for expatriates.
Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex
The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (or BMAC, also known as the Oxus civilization) is the modern archaeological name for a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia, dated to ca. 2300–1700 BCE. It was in present-day Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan and northeastern Iran, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan. Its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi (1976). "Bactria" was the Greek name for the area of "Bactra" (modern Balkh), in what is now northern Afghanistan. "Margiana" was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Margu, in today's Turkmenistan.
Sarianidi's excavations from the late 1970s onward many buildings in many sites. Reports on the BMAC were mostly in Soviet journals, until the last years of the Soviet Union. The findings were unknown to the West until Sarianidi's work was translated in the 1990s.
Uzbek language
Uzbek ("O'zbek tili" or "O'zbekcha" in Latin script, Ўзбек тили or Ўзбекча in Cyrillic script, أۇزبېك تیلی in Arabic script) is a Turkic language. It is the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 40 million native speakers. It is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. Uzbek belongs to the southeastern Turkic or Uyghur family of Turkic languages.
Turkmen language
Turkmen (, Cyrillic: , Persian: ) is the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by about 7,000,000 people in Turkmenistan and by an about 380,000 more people in Northwestern Afghanistan and 500,000 in Northeastern Iran.
The leading Turkmen poet is Magtymguly Pyragy, who wrote in the 1700's.
Nuristani languages
The Nuristani (Nurestani) languages () are one of the three groups in the Indo-Iranian language family. The other two languages are Indo-Aryan and Iranian. They are spoken primarily in eastern Afghanistan.
Telephone numbers in Afghanistan
Area codes in Afghanistan are two digits long. It is common to write phone numbers as (0xx) yyy-yyyy, where xx is the area code. The 0 prefix is for long-distance dialing from within the country. International callers should dial +93 xx yyyyyyy.
Area codes for common cities are:
Helmand Province
Helmand (Pashto/Dari: هلمند) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the southwest of the country. Its capital is Lashkar Gah. The Helmand River flows through the mainly desert region, providing water for irrigation.
Helmand is the world's largest opium-producing region. It makes 75% of the world's total production. This is more than all of Burma, which is the second largest producing nation after Afghanistan. Afghan opium accounts for more than 90% of the global supply.
The current governor is Mohammad Golab Mangal (since March 2008).
Much of the fighting between NATO and Taliban forces is taking place in this province. Helmand is said to be a Taliban stronghold.
Helmand has a southern border with the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Many domestic and international observers have criticized Pakistan's efforts towards securing the border against Taliban insurgents.