Jalalabad province of Nangarhar is located in a real oasis. It is the last big town to the east before the Pakistani border. It is therefore an important crossroads for trucks transporting goods. Jalalabad is a lively city with Pakistani influence and proximity to the border.It is beautiful all year round, too hot in summer and good in winter. A flowered city that in the spring smells good the orange flower, Jalalabad was, before the war, the resort of the Afghan bourgeois. Under the monarchy, she was the winter town of kings. The population is predominantly pashtun. The Sikh community was important before the war. They are still present, but many left the country during the Taliban era. You can visit the Sikh Temple, or Daramsal, and the adjoining neighborhood where the hakim (Muslim physicist) still practise the ancient Greek pharmacopoeia (unani dawakhana). The inhabitants are living in trade with Pakistan and the cultivation of fruit and vegetables. The city's atmosphere resembles those of the cities of India and Pakistan.The bazaar is teeming with activity, rickshaws cross the city, ice sellers arrive. Jalalabad is a pleasant step, where it is advisable to stop two days in order to take advantage of the magnificent surrounding sites as well as gardens and riverside edges. In mid-April, poets gathered from all over Afghanistan for a conference where they book poems dedicated to orange flowers. The party is called Mushaïra (orange Flower).The Afghans find themselves in the gardens of Seraj-ul-Emorat to picnic and listen to the poets. This is the best time to visit Jalalabad, the time of flowering of orange trees and their stubborn scent. But the day of the Orange Flower celebration, during which poets and intellectuals in Jalalabad are indulging in verbal contests, is never fixed in advance…Nangarhar province did not grow only orange trees… in the early 1990 s, it was the first region for poppy cultivation. In the late 1990 s, it was overtaken by Helmand in the south. Today, virtually no one grows. A good alternative culture has been highlighted: olive groves. The olive has gradually replaced poppy according to a UN report. Still, many narco-traffickers still live around Jalalabad.History. In 329 BC, Alexander the Great passed through Jalalabad with 30 000 of his men while he was headed to India. From the second in the th century, more than a thousand Buddhist stupas, like in Hadda, flourished in the region. Nangarhar was then one of the most important places of Buddhist pilgrimage in the world. The region was also at the centre of the Sculptural sculpture movement, which, for the first time, represented Buddhas in human forms, with a Greek profile and Roman clothes. According to legend, the Buddha himself would have visited this valley. The city of Jalalabad was founded in 1570 by Jalaluddin Akbar, a Mughal emperor in India (1556-1605). He gave her his name, which means "the abode of splendour." It was the Moghul who made the Khyber Pass the main road to India. Since its foundation, many Afghan leaders have made Jalalabad their winter resort. Unfortunately, most of their beautiful palaces have now disappeared. The city was somewhat marginalized for several decades.In 1842, some 16 000 British soldiers fled the city to Kabul after a bitter defeat was inflicted on them by the Afghans. Legend tells us that only one Englishman, Dr Two, survived the massacre of these British soldiers. Amir Pazira was murdered in 1919 while fishing near Jalalabad. Its mausoleum is located in the centre of the city. For most of the Soviet war, Jalalabad was a stronghold of the Afghan communist regime, supported by the Red Army. The airport was used for several Soviet offensives against Afghan guerrillas in Safed Koh region, south and North. During the 1980 s, the people repeated their attacks on the government's positions in the suburbs of the city. In March 1989, as a result of the Soviet withdrawal, Jalalabad came up, but the government brought the insurgents into failure. The attack had been prepared in Peshawar, by the Americans and the Pakistani secret services (ISI), to put the people in power and put an end to the communist regime. Throughout the war, the Jalalabad region has undergone frequent bombings and attacks. In the summer of 1989 Jalalabad was at the heart of fighting between Kabul army and resistance. In August 1992, the city declared itself autonomous. Thanks to its airport and a private airline, it has become an important commercial crossroads, from Dubai and Pakistan. Smuggling has developed very quickly. At that time Jalalabad was headed by Haji Abdul Qader, and the province produced about 1 500 t of opium per year, such as Helmand. After the fall of the Najibullah regime in 1992, Jalalabad was governed as a semi-autonomous province. From 1992 to 1996, a dozen local commanders controlled the various sections of the road between Jalalabad, Kabul and the Pakistani border, each claiming passing taxes. The city was taken by the Taliban in 1996, fairly calmly. As Jalalabad was mostly pashtun, there was less resistance than in Kabul or Hérât.Geography. Jalalabad is located at 570 m above sea level in pretty low plains. In summer, climate is very hot and humid, sometimes suffocating. The Indian monsoon comes to this point. On the other hand, winters are very mild. Jalalabad is 1 000 m lower than Kabul, which explains its climate much more pleasant. Palms grow on the edge of the river. According to geographers, the climate of this region is subtropical, characterized by lush and unique vegetation in Afghanistan. There are sugar cane, grenadiers, orange trees, palm trees, a multitude of flower varieties, etc. The Jalalabad Valley is located in a fertile plain, irrigated by the Kabul and Kunar rivers. In the north, it is surrounded by the Hindu Kush mountains and those of the Spinghar in the south. Compared to other Afghan cities, Jalalabad is an oasis.

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Le rickshaw, un des moyens de locomotion de Jalalabad, influence du Pakistan. Constance de Bonnaventure

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