Inscriptions and documents in Kharosthi have been found over a broad area in Afghanistan. To the far west and northwest, several specimens have been found at sites along the Kabul River in Afghanistan as far west as Wardak or Khawat, some 20 miles west of Kabul. Recent archaeological excavations have also yielded numerous Kharosthi inscriptions from north of the Hindu Kush, in ancient Bactria, both in sites in northern Afghanistan such as Qunduz and in several places in the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.