Qalāti Ghilzay

Qalat-i Ghilzai stands on the road between Kandahar and Ghazni, its fortress commanding the approaches through the dry southern Afghan uplands. The town takes its name from the Ghilzai, a major Pashtun tribal group of the region. In the early eighteenth century a Ghilzai chief, Mir Wais Hotak, overthrew Safavid rule at Kandahar, and his successors carried their power into Persia.