Shah-i-Kot Valley

The Shah-i-Kot Valley (also Shahi-Kot, Shah-e-Kot and other variant spellings) is a valley located in Afghanistan's Paktia province, southeast of the town of Zormat. The terrain in and around the valley is notoriously rugged, located at a mean altitude of 9,000 feet (2,700 m). Shah-i-Kot means "Place of the King" and it has historically been a redoubt for Afghan guerrillas hiding from foreign invaders. The area was the scene of fierce fighting between the Afghan mujahideen rebels and Soviet forces during the Afghan-Soviet War, as the battle for Hill 3234.

History

Locals says the valley was named Shah-i-Kot after Alexander the Great invaded the region and the exile king of the time escaped to the valley with all tribal elders of the kingdom. The king gathered and hired new soldiers to attack Romans in Gardiz. He then moved his forces to (KWASH mountain) کوښ غر and the battle ensued near the KWASH mountain. KWASH mountain was named after the battle happened. KWASH was changed from the word GWAASH ګواښ یا ګواش which means warning.

It was also the scene of what was then the largest battle of the War in Afghanistan to date:[1][2][3][4] The Battle of Shah-i-Kot took place during Operation Anaconda, which began on 2 March 2002.

See also

References


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.