Sheberghan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sheberghan (also spelled Shebirghan and Shibarghan) is the capital city of the northern Jowzjan Province in Afghanistan.
[edit] Location
Sheberghan is located at along the Safid River banks, about 130 km (80 miles) west of Mazari Sharif on the national primary ring road Herat-Kandahar-Kabul-Mazari Sharif-Sheberghan-Mehmana-Herat.
[edit] History
Sheberghan was once a flourishing settlement along the Silk Road. In 1978, Soviet archeologists discovered the famed Bactrian Horde in the village of Tila Tepa outside Sheberghan. In the 13th century Marco Polo visited the city and later wrote about its honey sweet melons. Sheberghan became the capital of an independent Uzbek khanate that was allotted to Afghanistan by the 1873 Anglo-Russian border agreement.
Sheberghan was the site of the Dasht-i-Leili massacre in December 2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan where between 250 and 3,000 (depending on sources) Taliban prisoners were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal truck containers, while being transferred by U.S. and Northern Alliance soldiers from Kunduz to Sheberghan prison.
Sheberghan was the stronghold of Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who had been vying with his Tajik rival General Mohammed Atta for control of northern Afghanistan.
[edit] Economy
Sheberghan is surrounded by irrigated agricultural land.
With Soviet assistance, exploition of Afghanistan's natural gas reserves began in 1967 at the Khowaja Gogerak field, 15 kilometers east of Sheberghan in Jowzjan Province. The field's reserves were thought to be 67 billion cubic meters. In 1967, the Soviets also completed a 100-kilometer gas pipeline linking Keleft in the Soviet Union with Sheberghan.
Sheberghan is important in the energy infrastructure of Afghanistan:
- The Zomrad Sai Oilfield is situated near Sheberghan
- The Sheberghan Topping Plant processes crude oil for consumption in heating boilers in Kabul, Mazari Sharif and Sheberghan
- The Jorqaduk, Khowaja Gogerak, and Yatimtaq gas fields are all located within 20 miles of Sheberghan
