Afghanistan is a culturally mixed nation, a crossroads between the East and the West, and has been an ancient focal point of trade and migration. The most common languages spoken in Afghanistan are Persian and Pashto.
The country has been governed by nearly every system of government over the past century, including a monarchy, republic, theocracy and communist state. Afghanistan is administratively divided into thirty-four provinces and for each province there is a capital.
The only city in Afghanistan with over one million residents is its capital, Kabul. The other major cities in the country are, in order of population size, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e- Sharif, Jalalabad, Ghazni and Kunduz.
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