The Wakhan valley is located between in south-west of Tajikistan in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province and north-east of Afghanistan. It contains the headwaters of the Amu Darya River, and was an ancient corridor for travelers from the Tarim Basin to Badakshan. An 1873 agreement between UK and Russia split the Wakhan by delimiting spheres of influence for the two countries at the Pyanj and Pamir rivers, and an agreement between Britain and Afghanistan in 1893 confirmed the new border.
The Wakhan is connected to Tashkurgan Tajik County, China, by a long, narrow strip called the Wakhan Corridor, which separates the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan. Historically the Wakhan has been an important region for thousands of years as it is where the Western and Eastern portions of Central Asia meet.
