Kandahar, or Candahar, the capital of central or southern Afghanistan, 200 miles SW. of Kabul. It stands in 32° 37' N. lat. and 66° 20' E. long., 3484 feet above sea-level. It is in the form of an oblong square, while all its streets run straight, and cut one another at right angles. At the intersection of the two main streets there is a large dome (Charsu). Pop. variously estimated from 25,000 to 100,000. Kandahar is well watered by two canals, and stands amid gardens and orchards. It has much trade with Bombay, Herat, Bokhara, and Samarcand. About 2 miles N. rises a precipitous rock, crowned by a fortress. Here, amid all the disasters of 1839-41, the British maintained their ground under Rawlinson. Kandahar is supposed to have been founded by Alexander the Great, was wrested from the Afghans by the famous Mahmud of Ghazni (997-1030), and from then down to 1747 was, with brief intervals of independence, held by Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, and by various rulers of Tartary, India, and Persia in turn. In the war of 1878-80 the British entered Kandahar unopposed, and held it till 1881, some months after they had evacuated the rest of Afghanistan. The Sibi-Pishin Railway from the south has greatly enhanced both its political and its commercial importance.