Zabul Province in the context of "Tarnak River"

Ghazni (Pashto: غزني, Pashto pronunciation: [ɣaz.ni]; Dari: غزنی, Dari pronunciation: [ɣäz.níː]), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in southeastern Afghanistan. The province contains 19 districts, encompassing over a thousand villages and roughly 1.3 million people, making it the 5th most populous province. The city of Ghazni serves as the capital. It lies on the important Kabul–Kandahar Highway, and has historically functioned as an important trade center. The Ghazni Airport is located next to the city of Ghazni and provides limited domestic flights to Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

Ghazni borders the provinces of Maidan Wardak, Logar, Paktia, Paktika, Zabul, Uruzgan, Daykundi and Bamyan.

Kandahar is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Balochistan, Pakistan, to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzgan in the north and Zabul Province in the east. Its capital is the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second largest city, located on the Arghandab River. The greater region surrounding the province is called Loy Kandahar. The Emir of Afghanistan sends orders to Kabul from Kandahar making it the de facto capital of Afghanistan, although the main government body operates in Kabul. All meetings with the Emir take place in Kandahar, meetings excluding the Emir are in Kabul.

The province contains about 18 districts, over 1,000 villages, and approximately 1,431,876 people (the 6th most populous province), which is mostly tribal and a rural society. The main inhabitants of Kandahar province are the ethnic Pashtuns. They are followed by the Baloch people, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmens and Hazaras.

The Sulaiman Mountains Range are a north–south extension of the southern Hindu Kush mountain system in western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. They rise to form the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau. They extend from the Kandahar, Zabul and Paktia provinces of Afghanistan across the northern Balochistan, Waziristan and Kurram of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. In southwestern Punjab, the mountains extend into the Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts, which are located west of the Indus River on the boundary with Balochistan. Bordering the mountains to the east are the plains of the Indus River valley, and to the north are the arid highlands of the Central Hindu Kush whose heights extend up to 3,383 m (11,099 ft). The total area on which this range spans around 6,475 km (2,500 sq mi). Together with the Kirthar Mountains on the border between Balochistan and Sindh Province, the Sulaiman Mountains form the Sulaiman-Kirthar geologic province.

The most well-known peak of the Sulaimans is the twin-peaked Takht-e-Sulaiman at 3,487 m (11,440 ft), located near Darazinda in Dera Ismail Khan Subdivision, close to the border with both South Waziristan and the Zhob District of neighboring Balochistan. The highest peak is Zarghun Ghar at 3,578 m (11,739 ft) near Quetta. The next highest peak in Balochistan province is Khilafat Hill at 3,475 m (11,401 ft) located in the Ziarat District of Pakistan and is famous for the Ziarat Juniper Forest, where Juniperus macropoda trees grow.

The Toba Kakar or Toba Kakari (Pashto: توبه کاکړۍ; Urdu: توبہ کاکڑ) are a southern offshoot of the Sulaiman Mountains in the Balochistan province of Pakistan, extending into the Kandahar and Zabul provinces of Afghanistan. The historical route through the mountains is known as the Bolan Pass. The mountains originally received media attention in August 1979; when evidence emerged that Pakistan may be using them as a potential workspace towards development of nuclear weapons. It was an occasional hideout for the Taliban during the Afghanistan conflict.

A western offshoot of the range in Killa Abdullah, Balochistan and Maruf District, Afghanistan is called the Toba Achakzai, where Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founder of Afghanistan, used to pass some of the hot weeks in summer during the last few years of his life.

The Kabul–Kandahar Highway (NH0101) is 483 km (300 mi) long that links Afghanistan's two largest cities, Kabul and Kandahar. It starts from Dashte Barchi in Kabul and passes through Maidan Shar, Saydabad, Ghazni, and Qalat before reaching Aino Mina in Kandahar. It is currently being rehabilitated at different locations. This highway is a key portion of Afghanistan's national highway system or "National Highway 1". It has a total of five truck scales, with two in Maidan Wardak Province, one in Ghazni Province, one in Zabul Province, and one in Kandahar Province.

Uruzgan (Pashto and Dari: اروزگان) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It has a population of 436,079, and the province is mostly a tribal society. Tarinkot serves as the capital of the province. Uruzgan borders the provinces of Kandahar, Daykundi, Ghazni, Zabul, and Helmand.

The Arghistan District (Pashto: ارغستان ولسوالۍ, Persian: ولسوالی ارغستان) is a district in the northeastern part of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. It borders Spin Boldak District to the south and west, Daman District to the west, Zabul Province to the north, Maruf District to the east and Pakistan to the south. The population is 30,500 (2006). The district's center is the village of Arghistan, in the physical center of the district in the Arghistan River valley.

Loy Kandahar (Pashto: لوی کندهار, pronounced [loɪ 'kand̪(ah)ɑr]; lit. 'Greater Kandahar') is a historical and cultural region of Afghanistan, comprising the modern Afghan provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Farah, Uruzgan, as well as parts of Nimruz and Zabul, and the Pashtun majority northern part of Balochistan including cities like Quetta, Chaman and many other areas (the latter known as "South Pashtunkhwa"). In 1709, Mirwais Hotak made the region an independent kingdom and turned Kandahar city into the capital of the Hotak dynasty. In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Durrani dynasty, made Kandahar the capital of the Afghan Empire.

Loy Kandahar is vaguely defined by a common culture and history that is connected to the local indigenous tribes that reside in the region. Some people may refer to these areas as being under the "Kandahari cultural sphere of influence".Particular styles of clothing, articles of clothing, turban styles, turban cloth colors, dialects of Pashto language, etc. may sometimes be associated with specific tribes indigenous to Loy Kandahar and thus integrate themselves into regional culture. For instance, a Pashtun tribesman from Loy Kandahar may quickly recognize a Pashtun from Loya Paktia based upon his turban style and color. Likewise, a Pashtun from Loya Paktia may recognize someone from Loy Kandahar based upon his unique style of collarless kameez (shirt) with specific embroidered patterns on the front. There are many subtle and intricate cultural indicators of this type that are not recorded in any known written history but simply known and observed by the tribesmen of the various Pashtun regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.