ELD 055 — Nehalshani Pass

• The Illustrated London News, Vol. 86 (1885/1), May 16, p. 502: engraving based on a sketch by W. Simpson showing the Nialsheni pass; p. 510: “South of the Zulfagar Pass, and also on the right bank of the Heri-Rud, is the Nialsheni Pass; but the character of the latter is altogether different form that of the former. It has not the natural grandeur or the military importance of the other. The geological character is entirely different. The Nialsheni Pass lies among a range of low sandhills, which are bare and yellow; the sand is hardened into solidity, but the rain has worn the sides into innumerable grooves, so that they have the appearance of having been crimped or goffered. […] The Nialsheni Pass is about half-way between Sarakhs and Herat: and from it to the last-mentioned place there is nothing but an undulating plain along the whole distance. […]”
• Peacocke, W (1887): Records of Intelligence Party ABC, Vol. 3, pp. 67-68 (Nov. 29, 1884): Detailed description of the Nihalshani road, surveyed on November 29 and 30, 1884; p. 228 (Oct. 4, 1885): “Over first part of Nihalsheni pass, 11 miles. – A good, wide, and easy camel road has been now made by the Afghans over this pass. It is quite passable now by light carts, and requires but little further work to be a good gun road. At the point obstructed last year by rocks, the obstruction has been removed. Halted at Pusht-i-Chilgazi (also called Takht-i-Chilgazi) in the ravine draining out north from Takht-i-Khurd. Here there was this year a small trickling stream of sweet water which has been dammed up for use of flocks. Enough water can be stored here for the commission, and there is a fairly good camping ground close by. Good grass in the ravine and on the Takht-i-Khurd.”
• Yate, A.C. (1887): Travels with the Afghan Boundary Commission, p. 299: “[…] The Hari Rud is fordable just opposite the Zulfikar Pass, and a straight road (leaving the pass to the left or east) leads thence southward to the Nihalsheni Pass and Kuhsan. This latter is an infinitely easier route than that over the Stoi Pass, on the left bank of the Hari Rud. […]”
• Yate, C.E. (1888): Northern Afghanistan or Letters from the Afghan Boundary Commission, p. 57: “Captains Durand and Peacocke and Lieutenant Rawlins are away examining the road through the Nihalsheni pass, through which the Demarcation party expect to march very shortly on their way to meet the Russian Commission at Zulfikar. […]”
• Adamec, L.W. (1975): Herat and north-western Afghanistan, pp. 318-319: Nehalshani, “Elevation 4,164 feet. This is the most westerly of the passes leading across the low range of hills separating Badghis from the Ghorian district of the Herat province and is the direct road from Kaman-i-Bihisht to Karez Elias. […]”

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