Talukan

Marco Polo in 1275 described the old city of Talukan as follows:

The fortress is called Taihan, it has a large grain market, and everything around is beautiful and fruitful. Mountains to the south are large and high. They all consist of white salt, extremely hard, and people who travel long distances for thirty days, come here to take this salt for themselves, because it is the most respected and pure salt in the world. It is so hard that it can only be broken with a large iron hammer. And the amount would be enough for all countries of the Earth ^[1] .

In 1603, another European explorer, Bento di Goish , who traveled with a caravan from Kabul to Yarkand (at that time it was the capital of Kashgaria ) visited Talukan (or “Talhan”) ^[2] .

Talukan was the last major city captured by the Taliban in January 2001 . During the siege of the city killed hundreds of civilians. After the capture of the Taliban from the city began a mass exodus of the population. Civilians tried to escape in the north of Kunduz province and in the Panjshir Gorge , in which groups of Northern Alliance fighters managed to stop the advance of the Taliban to the north and east of the city. However, they were not able to free the city. After the release of Talukan in November 2001, the leaders of the Northern Alliance discovered in Talukan a mass grave of 70 women and children - members of those families who could not escape from the city ^[3] .

As of 2006, the city’s population was 196,400.