Kharand valley • گالی خه‌ره‌ند

Located along the north side of Rawanduz is Kharand Valley, with striking cliffs, an azure river, and an ever-flowing waterfall.

The Rawanduz gorge is in places barely 10 yards wide at the bottom. The road appears a mere knife-scratch 6 feet wide along the southern cliffs of the gorge, and in many places is nearly 1000 feet above the torrent below. The gorge is cut through horizontally bedded limestone. Skeletons of animals and a cart were seen caught in the trees below, evidence of a former mishap. It is rather a desperate sort of road to have as your main line of communication, but the Turks not only used this line as theirs, but are said to have taken a motor-car along it. Mason 1919, p 335; edited for brevity

Went to see the famous gorge at Ruwandiz, about 50 miles away to the East. This gorge was the scene of some of the shots for the film of "Lost Horizon" and it is one of the most wonderful things I have ever seen. Throughout its ten miles length the walls rise almost sheer to a height of 2 or 3 thousand feet. At the bottom runs an icy, swift flowing stream, which provides grand fishing and bathing. We reconnoited a camp site here and decided to come back again for a few days. ... Went to Ruwandiz again taking with us two trucks, food for three days, including a whole sheep, and an Iraqi cook to look after us. The party comprised of six officers, three of our men and the cook. A grand time was had by everyone. Robert Davy's war diary, June 1943