Kunar River in the context of "Nuristani languages"

Kāfiristān, or Kāfirstān (Pashto: کاپیرستان; Dari: کافرستان; lit. 'Land of Infidels'), is a historical region that covered present-day Nuristan Province in Afghanistan and its surroundings. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises, the basins of the rivers Alingar, Pech (Kamah), Landai Sin and Kunar, and the intervening mountain ranges. It is bounded by the main range of the Hindu Kush on the north, Pakistan's Chitral District to the east, the Kunar Valley in the south and the Alishang River in the west.

Kafiristan took its name from the enduring kafir (non-Muslim) Nuristani inhabitants who once practised what authors consider as a form of animism and ancestor worship with elements of Indo-Iranian (Vedic- or Hindu-like) religion; they were thus known to the surrounding predominantly Sunni Muslim population as Kafirs, meaning "disbelievers" or "infidels". They are closely related to the Kalash people, an independent people with a distinctive culture, language and religion, who reside in the Chitral District of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

Jalalabad, previously known as Tarunshahr, and historically known as Nagarahara or Adinapur, is the fifth-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 200,331, and serves as the capital of Nangarhar Province in the eastern part of the country, about 130 kilometres (80 mi) from the capital Kabul. Jalalabad is located at the junction of the Kabul River and the Kunar River in a plateau to the south of the Hindu Kush mountains. It is linked by the Kabul-Jalalabad Road to the west and Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, to the east through Torkham and the Khyber Pass.

Jalalabad is a leading center of social and trade activity because of its proximity with the Torkham border checkpoint and border crossing, 65 km (40 mi) away. Major industries include papermaking, as well as agricultural products including oranges, lemon, rice, and sugarcane, helped by its warm climate. It hosts Afghanistan's second largest educational institute, Nangarhar University. For centuries the city was favored by Afghan kings and it has a cultural significance in Afghan poetry. During Timur Shah's reign of the Durrani Empire, Jalalabad served as the Afghan winter capital.

Chitral (Khowar: ݯھیترار, romanized: ćhitrār, lit. 'field') is a city situated on the Chitral River in the northern area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It serves as the capital of the Lower Chitral District, and was previously the capital of Chitral District, and before that the capital of Chitral princely state. The region was encompassed into West Pakistan between 1969 and 1972.

Kunar Valley is a valley in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Afghanistan the length of the valley is almost entirely narrow with steep and rugged mountains on both sides. The center of the valley is occupied by the Kunar River flowing south where it joins the Kabul River. Subsistence farming and goat-herding are the extent of agriculture production on the valley floor and lower elevations. There are limited and small forested areas in some side valleys but more than 95% of the valley has been deforested. In limited areas at higher elevations there are sustained grassy mountain meadows. Overwhelmingly though the Kunar Valley is an arid, rocky, steep landscape with a fast-moving muddy river as its primary geographic feature.

Nangarhar (also spelled Nangrahar, Ningrahar, and Ningarhar, Pashto: د ننګرهار ولایت, romanized: Da Nangarhār Wilāyat and Dari: ولایت ننگرهار, romanized: Wilāyat-e Nangarhār) is one of the major eastern provinces of Afghanistan and serves as a key political, economic, and cultural gateway between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It borders Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to the east and south, while internally it is adjacent to the Afghan provinces of Kunar, Laghman, Kabul, and Logar. The provincial capital is Jalalabad, a lowland city located along the Kabul River that functions as the principal administrative, commercial, and educational center of the region.

Covering an area of approximately 7,700 square kilometers and hosting an estimated population of around 1.8 million people (as of 2023), Nangarhar is defined by its fertile river valleys, semi-arid plains, and the lower reaches of the Spin Ghar mountain range, which forms the natural frontier with Pakistan. The province's landscape is shaped by the Kabul, Kunar, and Surkh Rod rivers, which support extensive agricultural production and sustain some of Afghanistan's most densely populated rural districts.

The Landai Sin River (Pashto: لنډی سين Lanḍai Sīn, "Short River"), also called the Bashgal River (باشګال سيند), is located in eastern Afghanistan. It rises in the Hindu Kush range near the Mandol Pass in the Nuristan Province of Afghanistan, and is fed from glaciers and snow to its north. The Landai Sin is a tributary of Kunar River.

The Landai Sin Valley is inhabited by the Kata, Mumo (Madugal), Kashtan, and Kom tribes of the Nuristani people. Eastern Kata-vari is the main spoken language in the Landai Sin Valley. The main town on the river is Kamdesh.