Andkhoy (city)
Andkhoy (Turkmen/Uzbek/: ) is a city and the capital of Andkhoy District in the Faryab Province of northwestern Afghanistan. The population of the town is 42,600 (2004). There is a road that leads it to the town of Kerki across the border, 100 km away. There is also a rail station in the city, which was recently opened for import and export purposes with neighboring Turkmenistan. Ruwe Arjans. The town founded by "The Ruwe Arjans", stands between the northern spurs of the Paropamise and the Oxus; it is 100 km. due west of Balkh, on the edge of  the Turkmen desert. The area was an independent Khanate, ruled by members of the Afshar tribe from 1747 to 1880. In 1847, the city was sacked by Yar Mohammad Khan, the ruler of Herat, from which it never recovered. The tract in which Andkhoy stands is fertile, but proverbially unhealthy; the Persians accounted it as "a Hell upon Earth" due to its scorching sands, brackish water, flies and scorpions. Renovation of Andkhoy started in 1959, mainly at the eastern parts of the old town. The original plan of the infrastructure was reconditioned and reduced to half its volume of the  developments to take place. The property owners refused to sell their land for further developments and the plan consequently failed. The infrastructure remained poor; for example, in 1973 only 13% of the houses had access to electricity, in particular for nights. Lack of sanitary drinking water remained a major problem. The 15 meter deep wells had salty and awfully bad tasting water and the trenches had only twenty days running water in a month. To counteract this, there were water pools to preserve water for bad days to come every month.