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The Hindu Kush (; Pashto, Persian and ), also known in Sanskrit as Pāriyātra Parvata and in Ancient Greek as the Caucasus Indicus ) or Paropamisadae (), is an mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. It forms the western section of the ''Hindu Kush Himalayan Region'' (''HKH''). It divides the valley of the Amu Darya (the ancient ''Oxus'') to the north from the Indus River valley to the south. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir or Terichmir at in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. To the east, the Hindu Kush buttresses the Pamir Mountains near the point where the borders of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, after which it runs southwest through Pakistan and into Afghanistan, finally merging into minor ranges in western Afghanistan. The mountain range separates Central Asia from South Asia.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/266291/Hindu-Kush )〕 ==Origin of name== The origins of the name ''Hindu Kush'' are uncertain, with multiple theories being propounded by different scholars and writers. In the time of Alexander the Great, the Hindu Kush range was referred to as the ''Caucasus Indicus'' or the "Caucasus of the Indus River" (as opposed to the Greater Caucasus range between the Caspian and Black Seas), and some past authors have considered this as a possible derivation of the name ''Hindu Kush''. ''Hindū Kūh'' () and ''Kūh-e Hind'' () are usually applied to the entire range separating the basins of the Kabul and Helmand Rivers from that of the Amu Darya, or, more specifically, to that part of the range lying northwest of Kabul. Sanskrit documents refer to the Hindu Kush as ''Pāriyātra Parvata''.〔http://www.savarkar.org/content/pdfs/en/six_glorious_epochs-1to6_savarkar_en_v000.pdf〕 The mountain range was called ''"Paropamisadae"'' by Hellenic Greeks in the late first millennium BC. Other sources state that the term ''Hindu Kush'' originally applied only to the peak in the area of the Kushan Pass, which had become a center of the Kushan Empire by the first century. The Persian-English dictionary indicates that the word 'koš' () is derived from the verb ('koštan' ), meaning to kill. Although the derivation is only a possible one, some authors have proposed the meaning "Kills the Hindu" for "Hindu Kush", a derivation that is reproduced in ''Encyclopedia Americana'' which says that the name ''Hindu Kush'' means "kills the Hindu" and is a reminder of the days when Indian slaves from the Indian subcontinent died in the harsh weather typical of the Afghan mountains while being transported to Central Asia. The ''World Book Encyclopedia'' states that "the name Kush ... means Death", while ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' says "The name Hindu Kush first appears in 1333 AD in the writings of Ibn Battutah, the medieval Berber traveller, who said the name meant 'Hindu Killer', a meaning still given by Afghan mountain dwellers who are traditional enemies of Indian plainsmen." The word ''Koh'' or ''Kuh'' means "mountain" in some local language Khowar. According to Nigel Allan, ''Hindu Kush'' meant both "mountains of India" and "sparkling snows of India", as he notes, from a Central Asian perspective. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hindu Kush」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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