Maymana

Maymana stands at the edge of the northern Afghan highlands, where valleys open toward the plains of Guzgan. Its fields are watered by streams descending from the mountains, and its market has long served the surrounding agricultural and pastoral country. The citadel has ancient origins, while the town's position made it a stopping place between Herat and the lands north of the Hindu Kush.

Uzbek princes crossed the Oxus at the beginning of the sixteenth century and reached the Faryab region around 1505. Maymana became a seat of local Uzbek rulers, who exercised considerable autonomy amid the competing powers of Central Asia and Afghanistan. In the eighteenth century it was the centre of a khanate as well as a trading town. Ahmad Shah Durrani brought the region under his authority in 1751, though local rulers continued to play a prominent part in its affairs. Orchards, farms and grazing lands sustained the town's commercial life.