Helmand Terrain

These are some photos from the Beechcraft.  They would have been about midway between Kabul and Helmand.  Throughout the middle of Afghanistan runs a broad and very high and very barren range of mountains, from northeast to southwest, petering out a bit before the desert area that is the west of Afghanistan and the east of Iran.  Basically, this is the Hindu Kush stretching southwestward from the Himalayas and then gradually lowering and disappearing as they run west.  At their height they reach 22,000 feet.  Kabul itself is 6,000 feet, though the mountains around it reach 14-16,000 ft.  The ones pictured here are probably around 10-12,000 ft high.