Anglo-Russian border agreement. Sheberghān has for millennia been the focal point of power in the northeast corner of Bactria. It still sits astride the main route between Balkh and Herat, and controls the direct route north to the Amu Darya, about 90 km away, as well as the important branch route south to Sar-e Pol. In 1856, J. P. Ferrier reported: The heavily fortified town of Yemshi-tepe, just five kilometres to the northeast of modern Sheberghān, on the road to Akcha, is only about from the famous necropolis of Tillia Tepe, where an immense treasure was excavated from the graves of the local royal family by a joint Soviet-Afghan archaeological effort from 1969 to 1979. In 1977, a Soviet-Afghan archaeological team began excavations 5 km north of the town for relics. They uncovered mud-brick columns and a cross-shaped altar of an ancient temple dating back to at least 1000 B.C. Six royal tombs were excavated at Tillia Tepe revealing a vast amount of gold and other treasures. Several coins dated to the early 1st century C.E., with none dated later. Sheberghān has been proposed as the site of ancient Xidun, one of the five xihou, or divisions, of the early Kushan Empire. Sheberghān was the stronghold of local Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum while vying with his Tajik rival General Mohammed Atta for control of northern Afghanistan in the early years of the Karzai administration. Sheberghān was the site of the Dasht-i-Leili massacre in December 2001 during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in which 250 to 3,000 (depending on sources) Taliban prisoners were shot or suffocated to death in metal truck containers, while being transferred by American and Northern Alliance soldiers from Kunduz to a Sheberghān prison. On 7 August 2021, Taliban forces captured Sheberghan as part of their nationwide military offensive. Land use Sheberghān is a trading and transit hub in northern Afghanistan. Agriculture accounts for 50% of the 7,335 hectares within the municipal boundaries. 23% of the land is residential, and largely clustered in the central area, but well distributed through the four districts. Climate Sheberghān has a cool, semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk) with hot summers and chilly, though variable, winters. There is moderate rainfall and some snowfall from January to March, but the rest of the year is dry, especially the summer. Economy Sheberghān is surrounded by irrigated agricultural land. With Soviet assistance, exploitation of