ABSTRACT
Afghanistan Within its dry mountainous terrain, Afghanistan has some significant areas of limestone and karst, with a few known caves. In the north, near Mazar-e-Sharif, areas of massive limestone lie in an adversely dry climate that may hinder cave and karst development. The Mar Koh, Safed Koh, and Sayed Koh ranges, above both banks of the Kabul River, contain a mixture of limestone, sandstone, and conglomerate. Both north and west of Kabul, there is limestone and karst that contains Afghanistan’s largest caves yet found. Table Rock Cave was explored by American cavers for 492 m, and a French and Spanish team explored the Salang and Bolan Baba massifs of the Hindu Kush, finding Ab Bar Amada, 1220 m long. In the interior desert, the spectacular gour lakes of Band-i-Amir spread down 15 km of a fine canyon (Figure 2). They are fed by waters that rise from limestone springs and then sink into alluvium downstream of the ten travertine barriers, the larger of which are each over 20 m high. The travertine is largely of Pleistocene age, as are many other dry and abandoned deposits in the adjacent mountains. There is karst near Kandahar, with caves of which the longest is Shamshir Ghar (225 m). Caves may also exist in the Paktia region near to the border with Pakistan. In addition to these natural caves, there are numerous man-made “caves” cut into soft conglomerates and sandstone, that have served as religious sites, homes, storerooms, and military strongholds; they include the infamous Tora Bora “caves” in eastern Afghanistan. There is certainly some significant karst waiting to be searched for caves, but political instability renders most of the country inaccessible. A group of Pakistani cavers, based in Baluchistan, conducted some investigations in the Kandahar area in the later part of 2000.
