The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.147

v1.c15.147

There is lateral communication between the Khyber and Bolān routes outside the Indian frontier and yet within the Hindu Kush. The route follows a chain of valleys between Kābul and Kandahār through Ghazni. Along it from Kandahār to Kābul the army of Alexander the Great marched to his Bactrian and Indian campaigns: and it again became famous in the last generation because of the march of General Roberts from Kābul to the relief of Kandahār during the Afghān war of 1882. From this Kābul-Kandahār road several passes penetrate the mountainous belt of the Indian frontier, presenting alternative exits from the two trunk routes. But amid the maze of mountains north of the Kābul-Kandahār line, there are no practicable alternatives to the two ways—over the Hindu Kush and over the plateau from Seistān.