AFGHANISTAN

75

the north, and follows the banks of an affluent called the
Surkhab, through the district of Ningrahar, to the historic
pass of Pezwan. From Pezwin to the edge of the Kabul
plain at Butkak, the road becomes involved among the
intricacies of a mass of hills formed by the lower spurs
thrown off from the western abutment of the Safed Koh.
Through these hills there is more than one road to Kabul.
It is near this point that the terrible defile of Jagdalak (so
fatal to us in 1843) occurs, but an alternative route now
traverses the plains above the defile leading directly to
the Lataband Pass and to Butkdk. The road between
Lataband and Butkak runs parallel to the rivers at no
great distance south of it, for here a stupendous gorge
encloses the torrent in its course from the elevated plain
of Kabul (7000 feet) to the plain of Laghman (3000 feet).
From the edge of the cliffs above this gorge it is barely
possible to watch the rush of the waters below. Between
this gorge at Butkak and the open plains of Laghman the
river falls some 4o00 feet, passing through a succession
of defiles that have hitherto effectually barred the way to
road-making, The route just described is that known
to us so familiarly as the Khaibar, a name which was
originally adopted from a comparatively insignificant pass
near Dakka, and is now applied to the whole road from
Kabul to its debouchment opposite Jamrud into the plains
of India. This was not, however, the route which was
adopted for commercial or for military purposes formerly.
The valley of Ningrahar was left to the south, and the
Kabul River itself shaped the line through the Laghman
(or Lamgan) plains more directly to a point at the eastern
limits of those plains, where it passed by easy gradients
luto the Kunar Valley, and so, over the low watershed on
its eastern banks, into Bajaor and Swat. The Khaibar
route, or rather the Khaibar combination of routes, has
always been, and must ever be, the most important of all
lines of approach to the north-west frontier of India. It
has figured in history from the remotest ages as the
golden gateway to the wealth of the plains. Through it
have passed not only those military invasions which have