The country 0f Afghanistan, officially known as The Islamic republic of Afghanistan, has captured news headlines all over the world. Now the first thing to look at is the landlocked country of Afghanistan shares its borders with Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Uzbekistan, and has a huge population of 38.2 million people, making it the 37th most populated country in the world. Now the people who make up Afghanistan, they're called Afghans, not Afghanis - which is the currency that they use and it's a common mistake that people make. The next thing is that the country of Afghanistan is the world's 42nd largest by land area, with Kabul serving as its capital and largest city. The total land area is 652,860 square kilometers. And, human habitation in Afghanistan dates back to the Middle Paleolithic era and the country's strategic location along The Silk Road connected it to cultures of the Middle East as well as other parts of Asia. Afghanistan's national game is Buzkashi which translates to goat-pulling, and they want this to be an Olympic sport. Good luck with that because it's regarded as the wildest sports game out there. It involves placing the carcass of a goat, a calf, or sheep placed in the center of a circle which is surrounded by players of two teams who are on horseback. The objective of the game is to pick up the carcass and bring it across a goal line or into the winner's circle. The game has been played since the 13th century and used to be played earlier by rich rival warlords. But, it's now being financed by Afghan phone companies as well as private Airlines. Also, carpet weaving has always been an integral part of the Afghan heritage for centuries with ethnic diversity drawn from other cultures like Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. The Afghan rugs are an extremely popular Afghanistan export. In 2008, 2013, and 2014, Afghan rugs won international awards which are held every year in Hamburg, Germany. Most Afghan weavers today make rugs that are about the same as those that have been woven for decades. And as a testament to the meticulous nature of this art, it approximately takes six to nine months to weave one large Afghan carpet. Many reports also state that only 28.1% of the population above the age of fifteen is literate in Afghanistan, which means 71.9% of adults in the country do not have simple reading and writing abilities. And hopefully, that continues to change over the years, because the more educated you are, of course, the more power you have. It's also the land of Opium. Opium is the largest and fastest-growing produce in Afghanistan. Afghanistan Opium poppy production goes into more than 90% of Heroin worldwide. Afghanistan has been the world's greatest illicit Opium producer, and in 2017, Opium cultivation in Afghanistan reached a record high. The fact that the Opium poppy cultivation continues to expand in Afghanistan is not surprising. I mean, the country's economy has been in a deep slump since 2013 when the United States and NATO radically drew down their troop presence around which much of Afghanistan's economy was built after 2002. Now, the bottom line is that there is simply nothing in Afghanistan that produces more jobs than the Opium poppy economy. And there's nothing else that would surpass it in the foreseeable future. Another interesting fact is that the world's first oil paintings were not drawn in Renaissance Europe, contrary to popular belief but, in the Caves of Bamiyan located in the central heartland of Afghanistan around 650 BC. In 2008, scientists discovered oil paintings in 12 out of 50 caves in Bamiyan possibly made with walnut or poppy. Bamiyan was once a thriving Buddhist center where monks lived in a series of caves carved into the cliffs by the two statues. This was a spot where the world's two largest standing Buddha statues once stood until the Taliban destroyed them in 2001, seeing that the statues were on Islamic. Poetry is also a very important part of Afghan culture for thousands of years, Afghans have told their tales in the form of verses. On the western side of Herat, Thursday is a poetry night. Every Thursday, people from all across the city get together to share verses from old and new poetry. And they get together with desserts and sweet tea, and bond over poetry. That sounds pretty awesome! kind of like my kind of thing. I love just chill vibes, poetry, spoken word, you know what do I mean? I might enjoy it over in Afghanistan! The next thing I want to talk about is Kandahar The airfield, situated in southern Afghanistan, is known to be the world's single busiest runway airstrip. It is also the location where NATO has its first full air traffic facility in a country not listed in NATO. And the final fact about Afghanistan is that Afghanistan became independent on August 19th of 1919, and they fought three wars with Britain, after which, they declared themselves independent. Now interestingly, they were never directly ruled by the British. However, like every other country in South Asia, their foreign affairs were heavily influenced by the United Kingdom. Nicknamed the Graveyard of Empires, Afghanistan has had a reputation for being unconquerable, and for undoing ambitious military ventures, and for humiliating would-be conquerors.
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