page_title: Hazarajat
section_title: Topography
hierarchical_section_title: Hazarajat / Geography / Topography
caption_attribution_description: Bamyan collage
context_page_description: Hazārajāt is a mountainous region in the central highlands of Afghanistan, among the Koh-i-Baba mountains in the western extremities of the Hindu Kush. The word Hazara usually ends with the Persian letter [he] "Hazareh" or "Hazarah", which the Persian speakers often do not pronounce like Shahnameh or Shahnama.
  It is the homeland of the Hazara people who make up the majority of its population. "Hazārajāt denotes an ethnic and religious zone." Hazarajat is primarily made up of the provinces of Bamyan, Daykundi, Ghor and parts of Ghazni, Urozgan, Parwan and Maidan Wardak. The most populous towns in Hazarajat are Bamyan, Yakawlang, Nili, Lal wa Sarjangal, Sang-e-Masha, Gizab and Behsud. The Kabul, Farah, Hari, Murghab, Balkh and Kunduz rivers originate from Hazarajat.
  The name "Hazarajat" first appears in the 16th-century book Baburnama, written by Mughal Emperor Babur. When the famous geographer Ibn Battuta arrived in Khurasan in 1333, he traveled across the country but did not record any place by the name of Hazarajat.
context_section_description: The Hazarajat lies in the central highlands of Afghanistan, among the Koh-i Baba mountains and the western extremities of the Hindu Kush. Its boundaries have historically been inexact and shifting. Its physical boundaries, however, are roughly marked by the Bā-miān Basin (see BĀMIĀN ii.) to the north, the headwaters of the Helmand River (q.v.) to the south, Firuzkuh to the west, and the Unai Pass to the east. The regional terrain is very mountainous and extends to the Safid Kuh and the Siāh Kuh mountains, where the highest peaks are between 15,000 to 17,000 feet. Both sides of the Kuh-e Bābā range contain a succession of valleys. The north face of the range descends steeply, merging into low foothills and short semi-arid plains, while the south face stretches towards the Helmand Valley and the mountainous district of Behsud.
  The northeastern part of the Hazarajat, is the site of ancient Bamigan (now Bamyan) "Harapacin  Kuf"  Middle Persian or Pahlavi (Persian: کوف هرپاراسين‎) today Koh e Baba (literaly: "granfather mountain"). In the Iranian-Indian and Turanian cultural areas localed four great, mighty mountains in the world: Alborz, Zagros Mountains, Hindu Koh (mentioned eleven times in  Shahnameh of Ferdowsi Koh e Hind or Hindukoh and Himalayas. Now there are also numerous names for mountain in today's Iranian languages such as Pashtu and Persian, Baluchi and Kurdish and other Iranian dialects. They are: Kup, Kuf,  "Gar" (pronounced "Garr", arabized Ghar  (Persian: غر‎ mountain), "Har" or "Al"  and  "Koh" or Kuh means in Persian mountain), in the watershed, source of three Rivers, Balkh River or Balkab or Balkau, which flows northwards to Oxus, Kabul River flows in to Indus and  Hirmand-River, which  flows in Delta of Hamun sea,  a center of Buddhism and a key caravanserai on the Silk Road. The town is situated at a height of 7,500 feet and surrounded by the Hindu Kush to the north and Koh-i Baba to the south.  
  see too Bundahishn
caption: Bamyan Province of Afghanistan
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