SALANG Tunnel

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Salang-e Shamali (also: Salang-e Shamali, in English: Salang Tunnel) is a 2.6 km long (note 1) one-way road tunnel (note 2), which is either the highest in the world (note 3) or one of the highest (note 4). Its excavation was sponsored by the former Soviet Union as an aid project that was officially opened in November 1964 (NAVABI 1964; WATSON 2001) and saw several guerrilla attacks during the Russian Afghan war (GLANTZ 1996; NYROP & SEEKINS (1986: 306). SITUATION: Salang Pass (note 5) lies on the main road from Kabul across the Hindukush to Mazar-e Sharif. The SSE entrance lies near N35°17'30-: E69°03' in the upper reaches of the Salang Rod (Salang River, a tributary from the north-east to the Ghorband Valley) in Salang district (Parwan province), and the NNE entrance near N35°19'30-: E69°01'30- in Khinjan district (Baghlan Province). DESCRIPTION: The tunnel had the sinister and strong look of a ferro-concrete bunker in a spy film. The road is asphalt but in the tunnel we pased horses and donkeys, and one month later, at the beginning of winter [1970], I saw a long line of hundreds of cavalry horses led by Hazara soldiers under a mounted Afghan officer moving up into the pass (LEVI 1972 edited 1984, 2000: 91).Salang-e Shamali (also: Salang-e Shamali, in English: Salang Tunnel) is a 2.6 km long (note 1) one-way road tunnel (note 2), which is either the highest in the world (note 3) or one of the highest (note 4). Its excavation was sponsored by the former Soviet Union as an aid project that was officially opened in November 1964 (NAVABI 1964; WATSON 2001) and saw several guerrilla attacks during the Russian Afghan war (GLANTZ 1996; NYROP & SEEKINS (1986: 306). SITUATION: Salang Pass (note 5) lies on the main road from Kabul across the Hindukush to Mazar-e Sharif. The SSE entrance lies near N35°17'30-: E69°03' in the upper reaches of the Salang Rod (Salang River, a tributary from the north-east to the Ghorband Valley) in Salang district (Parwan province), and the NNE entrance near N35°19'30-: E69°01'30- in Khinjan district (Baghlan Province). DESCRIPTION: The tunnel had the sinister and strong look of a ferro-concrete bunker in a spy film. The road is asphalt but in the tunnel we pased horses and donkeys, and one month later, at the beginning of winter [1970], I saw a long line of hundreds of cavalry horses led by Hazara soldiers under a mounted Afghan officer moving up into the pass (LEVI 1972 edited 1984, 2000: 91).