Which Asian country has the Wakhan Corridor in its northeast?

The Wakhan Corridor is in Afghanistan’s far northeast. This narrow strip of Afghan territory reaches east toward China and separates Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan region from Pakistan-controlled areas farther south.

The corridor is part of Wakhan District in Badakhshan Province. Its unusual shape emerged during the 19th-century “Great Game,” when British and Russian spheres of influence were arranged so Afghanistan formed a buffer between the Russian Empire and British India. The 1893 Durand Line and later Pamir boundary arrangements helped create the modern corridor.

Wakhan is mountainous and remote, with the Pamir Mountains to the north and the Hindu Kush and Karakoram to the south. The Wakhjir Pass connects the corridor with China, although the border has not operated as a normal public crossing. Historically, routes through Wakhan linked Central Asia, South Asia and China, and travelers including Marco Polo are associated with the wider region.

A common mix-up is choosing Tajikistan or Pakistan because the corridor borders both. They flank it, but the corridor itself is Afghan territory.