Andkhoy

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Andkhoy
Andkhoy
Province	Faryab
Coordinates	36.950° N 65.117° E
Population (2004)	37,100
Area - Elevation	316 m
Time zone	GMT+04:30 Kabul (UTC)

Andkhoy (or Andkhui), a town in northern Afghanistan, Faryab Province, is located at 36°57′N, 65°07′E, 316 m altitude.The populatiion of the town is 37 100 (2004).The district is located in the nortern part of the province.The western and the northern borders are the national border with Turkmenistan.

1 History
2 Education
3 Economy and transport
4 References

[edit] History

The town (said to have been founded by Alexander the Great) stands between the northern spurs of the Paropamisus and the Oxus; it is 100 m. due west of Balkh on the edge of the Turkmen desert. The khanate is of importance as being one of the most northern in Afghanistan, on the Russian border. Until 1820 it was subject to Bokhara, but in that year Mahmud Khan besieged it for four months, took it by storm and left it a heap of ruins. To preserve himself from utter destruction the khan threw himself into the arms of the Afghans. The tract in which Andkhui stands is fertile, but proverbially unhealthy; the Persians account it "a hell upon earth" by reason of its scorching sands, brackish water, flies and scorpions. The district was allotted to Afghanistan by the Russo-Afghan boundary commission of 1885.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 and only at night. 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.

[edit] Education

There are about 1000 teachers and 40000 students in this small town. However, on the good side, there were two separate schools for boys and girls existing until 1990's. Among them stood the Tomb of Hazrat Baba Wali and its affiliated Madrasa or school that are considered very sacred by the Turkmens of the region and are a major attraction of local tourists.

[edit] Economy and transport

The fact that the town is located on one of the biggest trade routes between the Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan does not help Andkui economically. The town recently got access to the outside world through the mobile phone thanks to ROSHAN GSM company.
This town is located in a plain at the vicinity of the Shirin Tagab River, which irrigates the town and surrounding areas. The town itself and its few other villages are always in a severe semi-drought. Although the distance between Sheberghan and Andkhoy is not more than seventy km, the town is extremely remote and isolated from the mainstream developments of the region, as is Maimana. The roads to either Sheberghan (70 km) or Maimana (130 km) are underdeveloped and are considered the worst roads in all of Afghanistan.There is an airport 4 miles east of the town with gravel runway and access road to all weather highway.