How Afghanistan got its bizarre panhandle

For a country that hasn't been conquered since Tamerlane rolled through, Afghanistan has sure been shaped by all those who tried to control it. Today, there's even a little strip of land in the country's northeast that forms a panhandle – strange for such a small strip considering the major powers who fought for control of the area.

It was those major powers who created the panhandle in the first place. Today it borders China, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. But during a period of time in Afghan history known as "The Great Game," those countries were parts of China, the Russian Empire, and the British Empire, respectively.

It was Britain's way of containing a quickly-growing Russia.

A treaty between Russia and Great Britain in 1873 made the Panj and Pamir Rivers the border between the Russian Empire and Afghanistan's northern border. In 1893, the Durand Line became Afghanistan's border with British India. A mostly independent Afghanistan was a buffer zone between the two growing empires.

The resulting narrow strip of land became known as the Wakhan Corridor.

It's an area even more ungovernable than the rest of Afghanistan. At elevations as high as 17,000 feet in some areas, the area is inaccessible to most Afghans – and even the Taliban and the Soviet Union were unable (or unwilling) to fully move into the area.

The form of Islam practiced in the Wakhan is very hostile to the Taliban, a further explanation of the lack of central interference from Kabul.

The 3,500-mile area used to be a route along the Silk Road and was traversed by great historical figures like Alexander the Great and Marco Polo. People there still depend on trade, but this remote part of Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province sees little in the way of tourists or even Afghan visitors.

Today the area has few roads, no government, and is home to roughly 12,000 nomadic and semi-nomadic people.