Map illustrative of the march of the India section of the boundary commission from Quetta to Herat and Badkis, of the frontier as proposed and actually demarcated, and of the author’s return journey from Herat to the Caspian.

“Description Scale 1:2,027,520; 1 in. = 32 miles. Relief shown by hachures. LC copy annotated in orange, red, green, and yellow ink. Shows western half of Afghanistan, "Russian Dominions," "Persia," and "Beluchistan." Also shows by colored line "Boundary as actually demarcated," "Boundary as required by the Russians," and "Boundary as required by the Afghans." Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Includes "Enlarged sketch of Kilat-I-Nadari," ca. 1:506,880. AACR2”

“Map Illustrative of the March of the Indian Section of the Boundary Commission from Quetta to Olerat and Badkis; of the Frontier as Proposed and Actually Demarcated, and of the Author's Return Journey from Herat to the Caspian : In the early 1880s, Great Britain (which at that time effectively controlled the foreign policy of Afghanistan) and the Russian Empire opened negotiations to define the northern border of Afghanistan. The two sides formed a Joint Boundary Commission, which began work in the fall of 1885. By January 1888, the commission had set up 79 boundary markers along the 630-kilometer frontier from the Du’l-Feqar Pass to the Amudar’ya River. This annotated map of the western half of Afghanistan shows the route taken by the British (i.e., Indian) half of the commission from Quetta in British India to Herat, where it set up its headquarters, and further north where the survey work was undertaken. Colored lines are used to indicate “Boundary as actually demarcated," "Boundary as required by the Russians," and "Boundary as required by the Afghans.” The author referred to in the title of the map is most likely Sir Joseph West Ridgeway (1844–1930), who succeeded Sir Peter Stark Lumsden as the head of the Indian side of the commission and played a large role in both the survey work and in negotiations concerning the border with the Russian government in Saint Petersburg”—copied from website.

The Library of Congress donated copies of the digitized material (along with extensive bibliographic records) containing more than 163,000 pages of documents to ACKU, the collections that include thousands of historical, cultural, and scholarly materials dating from the early 1300s to the 1990s includes books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, newspapers and periodicals related to Afghanistan in Pushto, Dari, as well as in English, French, German, Russian and other European languages ACKU has a PDF copy of the item.

English