Kandahar or The  first modern capital of Afghanistan

Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of 1,010 m (3,310 ft). Kandahar, the birthplace and first capital of modern Afghanistan, founded by Ahmad Durrani in 1747, today home to less than a million people, is located on the Asia Highway halfway between Kabul and Herat. The area is rich with ancient history. Here, Alexander the Great founded Alexandria of Arachosia and the region was repeatedly fought over for by the Staffavids and Moghuls. It was the independent minded Afghans of Kandahar, first under the leadership of Mirwais Hotaki, its mayor and then of Ahmad Shah Durrani, who hastened the decline of both empires and annexed much of their territories to the young Afghan Kingdom in the 18 th Century. Historically this province is considered as an important political area for Afghanistan. Many empires have long fought over the city due to its strategic location along the trade routes of southern, central and western Asia. In 1709, Mirwais Hotak made the region an independent kingdom and turned Kandahar 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. Kandahar is one of the most culturally significant cities of the Pashtuns and has been their traditional seat of power for more than 300 years. It is a major trading center for sheep, wool, cotton, silk, felt, food grains, fresh and dried fruit, and tobacco. The region produces fine fruits, especially pomegranates and grapes, and the city has plants for canning, drying, and packing fruit, and is a major source of marijuana and hashish.