ANDKHUI  , a

town and khanate in Afghan Turkestan . The town (said to have been founded by Alexander the Great) stands between the northern spurs of the Paropamisus and the Oxus; it is roc) m. due west of Balkh on the edge of the Turkman desert . The khanate is of importance as being one of the most northern in Afghanistan, on the Russian border . Until 182o it was subject to Bokhara, but in that year Mahmud Khan besieged it for four months, took it by storm and left it a heap of ruins . To preserve himself from utter destruction the khan threw himself into the arms of the Afghans . The tract in which Andkhui stands is fertile, but proverbially unhealthy; the Persians account it " a hell upon earth " by reason of its scorching sands, brackish water, flies and scorpions . The population, estimated at 15,000, consists principally of Turkmans with a mixture of Uzbegs and a few Tajiks . The district was allotted to Afghanistan by the Russo-Afghan boundary commission of 1885 .