Kunduz is one of the ancient and historical provinces located to the northeastern of Afghanistan. During different times, the province has had different names such as Apaska, Kuhandiz and Kunduz.
Kunduz has occupied an important geo-strategic location. It was the military base of Alexander The Great during 330-BC when he attacked Bessus and declared himself the king of Apaska (Kunduz).
Kunhandiz, now known as Kunduz was the capital of Takharistan. During the reign of The Hephthalites, 2000 –BC, it was one of the most important trade routes, linking south of The Hindu Kush to the north via Kohdaman and Kohistan.
Kunduz, in the north of Hindu Kush between Takharistan and Bakhtarian, was an important hub where trade route forked one to Balkh and the second to Takharistan while the third towards Amu River.
The province has vast and rich agricultural lands with two big rivers and one airport and the renowned Sher Khan Port. The province shares 270 kilometers border with Tajikistan while The Amu River lie between Tajikistan and Kunduz.
With a total 7668.7 square Kilometers area, the province is situated at an elevation of 405 meters above the sea level and having around one million populations.
Latitude:  22, 36degrees, 12, 58minutes and 30 secondsnorth
Longitude: 6, 68degrees, 5, 52minutes and16secondseast.
The word Kunduz in Uzbek Language means” day” and in Dari it means “Old castle”
Kunduz located 337 kilometers to north of Kabul City with the Amu River flows to its south. It shares borders with Takhar Province to the East, Baghlan to the south while Samangan to the west.
The weather of the province is warm in the spring and its remains pleasant but hot in the summer and chilly in the winter.
Districts:
  The province has six districts including Imam Sahib, Dasht-e-Archi, Qala-e-Zal, Chahar Dara, Ali Abad and Khan Abad. Its capital is known Kunduz city.
Various ethnicities live side by side in the province include Tajik, Pashtun, Uzbek, Hazara, Aymaq, Baluch, Turkman, kuchi and Hindus.
Dams:The province has five big dams, which most of the time trigger damages because of floodsalmost year. The five known rivers include Khan Abad Dam, Nahr-e-Naqi Dam,  Irgank Dam, Shahrawan Achi  and Mullah Karim Dams. The reconstruction of the dams has also been started.
Culture:
Directorate of culture and information has strived to promote the culture of the province.  Kunduzhas around ten leading poets and writers including Abdul KhaliqShadan, Mohammad Sabir Yousufi, Ahamdullah Daagh, and Gul Rahim NayazMand.  Mohammad Sayel, Nor Rahim Atif, Majid Perdis, Ghulam Haider Haider, Mohammad Nasir Shirzai, Mohammad Naeem Asker, Qaziyahya, Noor-ul-Ain Nawin, SalimBakhtyar and Dr. Najib. They all had rich contribution to the 74 pages of encyclopedia in Academy of Sciences ofAfghanistan.
In addition, as many as 60 civil societies and associations are functioning including Perdis, Jahan Noma, Mediathek, Rawzana-e-Solh and Masharekat Jawanan Khanabad.
The associations and the culture and Information directorate hold regular meetings in an apparent attempt to help publish writers and poets’ books.   Similarly, a poetry session Redi Gul has been established and poets come together to exchange their views and strengthen coordination among them from different parts of the country.
Soon after President Karzai assumed charge of his presidency, youth have shown interest immense interests in writing and studying various books. In addition,there is public library and libraries in schools and shops where people can get books for study.
Similarly, there are many more tailoring, literacy, English Language and other courses in the province where students are being professionally trained.
Local music has kept its own place in the province. Folklore songs of Feroz Kunduzi who is a local singer and also rap songs of Bezhan Kunduzi is very famous.
Museum:
The province faces lack of public museum, prompting local authorities to send historical stuff to the National Museum in Kabul. Recently, as many as three historical objects were explored in the province and then sent to Kabul. Two of them were mud made statues dating 5thad 4th BC while the small one was made of stone.
Historical Monuments:
Ferdosi Tosi has mentioned Kunduz in its poem book Shahnamah five times, indicating the historical importance of the city.
The historical beauty of Kunduz had been destroyed in different periods of history.
The city was rebuilt and became the center of Takharitan and again was destroyed. History depicted many families such as Sawaran Bokhdi, Kunduz Family, Rithai Gulgoon and Pahlwanan Royentanan have ruled the city.
In the reign of Alexander, theMacedonian and till the last heir of them Kunuz had been a part of Bakhtar area and as important center and crossroad of Silk Road.
As many as 19 small and big historical sites have been registered in Kunduz including Bala Hisar, Kalla Minaret, Chihel Dokhtaran, Haji Shaheed Masque Saqibai Maque, Ziarat Khaja Mash had, Rouza-e-Imam Sahib, MehrNegar Castle in Imam Sahib District, Tapa-e- Mutasil Doura-e-Kundu, Tepa Jarzar, pilgrimage of Hazrat Sultan Baba, Tepa-e-Zhobin in Ali Ali Abad District, Magas Tepa, Kohna Qala-e-Khan Abad and Qala-e-Zal.
Kohna –e-Qala (old castle)/ BalaHisaarKunduz:
According to Tabari history book, Bala Hisaar was built 3,500 years ago by one of the Persian Kings who was the descendents of Faraidoon. The castle has four gates, two small and big fences and located in a big ditch of water, which has been surrounded by walls.  
The Kunduz Bala Hisaar covers 87 acres area, located 3 kilometers to the north of the city. There are different stories concerning it. Bala Hisaar Kunduz was rebuilt in the reign of Sultan HussainBaiqra by Amir Khisrawshah governor and was appointed as the center of Takharistan.
In the reign of Amir Shir Ali Khan and Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, Bala Hisaar Kunduz was ruled by Miran Uzbaki such as Sultan Murad Khan, Amir Ataligh Beg and Amir Shah Murad Khan. Miranrule was up to Ghazi Amanullah Khan reign and then collapsed and Kunduz was changed into a separate governor ruling area with its center transferred to Khanabad.
In the reign of Khisrow, the king of Ariana, the present Balkh and many others such as Sawaran Bokhdi, Khanadan Royen Tananan, Shah Maqatel Kunduzi and Khazan family ruled over BalaHisaar and was set on fire by militants of Genhgiz in the 7thcentury.
Tapa (hill) and ZiaratChildokhtaran:  Theshrine is located one kilometer to the southeast of KallaMimar. Agriculturallandsandhouses are situated to the north and residential houses to thesouthwhile QalarTepais located to theWest. The monument has cultural value.
Tapa (hill) ZirDaura/Buzkashi square: The hill located five kilometers to the southeast of Kunduz where Buzkashi Square located in the middle of the Tapa.
Tapa (hill) Zhobin Ali Abad:  The historical area is nearly located at a 30 kilometers distance to the southwest of Kunduz Center and Baghlan River.
Kohana-e-Qala Khan Abad: The historical castle is located nearly five kilometers to the northeast of the district and covered 1.50 acres land. The KohnaQala or the old castle dating back to Bakhtariera.
Tapa (hill) Jergzar, Gul Tapa, Tapa Much and Magas Tapa:It is also among the ancient sites but there is no information about its history and there many historical tapa (hills) in Chahar Dara district.
Qala-e- Zal and its historical tapa (hills):It is located nearly 45 kilometers to the southwest of Imam Sahib District.
BalaHisaar and KohnaQala in the Imam Sahib District: Located 500 meters far from the center, it presents the Alexander or Bakhtariera.
Saha-e- Robat (Robat Area): The area is located at a distance of half a kilometer from Imam Sahib District, which covers nearly 2.50 acres land and surrounded by residential houses.
Rouza and Imam Sahib Mosque:  According to a survey conducted by a technical team of historical monument directorate, Rouza-e-Imam Sahib covers more than 15 acres of land.
It is said when Islam came to Afghanistan, Muslims started fighting with then government and Hazrat Yahya, the head of military of the Muslims was killed. Then the Muslims decided to take the head of Hazrat Yahya to Baghdad but the person, who was taking the head, was killed by enemies in the District of Imam Sahib. When the Muslim came to the area, they buried the head and body in the area. Since then, a ceremony (Janda Bala) takes places in the area every year.
Also narrated the head of Hazrat Imam Hussain, the grandson of Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH) has been brought from Karbls, Iraq and buried here.
Personalities: The ancient Kunduz Province is the place of well-known, social personalities and the origin of knowledge, arts and literature such as Sarwar Nashir Khan, Wakil Abudu Rasul, Shir Khan and many other famous peoples.
Media: 
The number of government and none-government print as well as electronic media outlets reaches to 30 in Kunduz province.
The Spinzar Weekly is one of the maiden media outlets in the province, which was first published in1973.  
 The print media is rarely popular in Kunduz comparing to other provinces because throughout the history little attention was paid to develop the print media in the province.
After the collapse of Taliban regime, multiple media outlets were arrived on the horizon such as the weekly Sada-a-Watan and Khunduz, though the outlets couldn’t continue publications due to economic meltdown.
Few print media are published in the province such as daily Bostan, weekly Kunduz, Almahdavi, monthly Numa, Woman, Police and Youths.
In addition, various print media outlets such as Arman, Watandar, Aryana, BBC and other were broadcasting programs in Kunduz. Some television channels such as Tolo, Shamshad, Aryana, Noreen, and others started activities the province.
Education:
A total 310,000 of students out of which 118,000 are girls that get education by 6,400 teachers in around 470 schools.
In addition, a university and six pedagogical institutes were functioning in the province where 3,700 students including girls are getting higher education in eight different faculties.
It is expected that the construction of new building for university in desert of provincial capital Kunduz would start functioning soon.
Despite modern education centers, religious studies are gaining momentum and people get enrolled in religious institutions of the province as well.
The Takahristan institute of high religious studies, rising center of teachers and Sher Khan high schools provide religious studies, which helped graduate hundreds of student. 
Industry:
The residents of Kunduz are highly skilled in weaving, designing of clothes, blankets and other textile related products. In addition, some are goldsmiths and coppersmiths by profession.
Industrially rich, the province has several established factories such as a tissue paper, rice, iron, cement and ice production factories, which provides employment opportunities to the people.
Carpet, jackets, shalwar Qamiz, turbans and similar other stuffs are popular among the people.
Most of the families earned their livelihood from the handicraft related profession.
The people of the province are skilled in making different types of clothes from the animal hides with the products have good market in areas where the weather remains cold.
Goldsmiths, iron smiths and copper smiths of Kunduz are contributing to the economy of the province as the handicrafts of the province were popular elsewhere in the country and abroad.
The handcraft industry witnessed greater achievements in recent past with a large number of families are associated with the profession and generating enough money.
In recent past, some factories in the province ware closed down due to economic recession, however, several other factories are still functioning.
The Spinzar Production and Gulbahar Textile Factories ware established back in 1971 and continued the production of cooking oil, soap, home appliances, and clothes until 1978 with manpower of 2,700 employees. However, the factory faced hurdles after the continuing war and instability in the country.
The factory is back on track with 300 employees after it was made operation in 1992.
The Spinzar production factory is granted to a French company for rehabilitation after the collapse of Taliban regime in 2002.
Currently, the Sher Khan Port highway is one of the safest roots in the country where tons of goods are being imported or exported.
The Sher Khan Port is connected via 672-meters long and 11-meters wide bridge with Tajikistan. It is a door way towards Central Asian states for export and import of goods.
The bridge is formally inaugurated in 2007 by the presidents of Afghanistan and Tajikistan, which was named the Bridge Of Friendship between the two countries.
The Friendship Bridge on Amo River cost $ 38 million by the financial assistance extended by the United States and Norway.
Afghanistan exports fruits, cements, carpets and other products while the country imports fuel, construction material, food and other stuff.
Agriculture:
Kunduz is a known agricultureprovince with most of the people associate with the profession of livestock. The province has dense forests as well.
 
Dry fruit such as almond, pistachio, and melon of Imam Sahib and Asqalani are widely popular being exported to rest part of the country.
Kunduz has 282 hectares of agricultural land, out of which 233 is irrigated and the rest is rain fed-land.
It merits mention here as many as 230 hectares irrigated and 48 hectares rain-fed land.
Major agriculture crops of the province include wheat, rice, and other kinds of fruits and vegetables.
Kunduz enjoys reputation for producing quality crops of wheat and rice, which are being consumed throughout the country.
Big improvement is noticed in the cultivation of wheat crops by each passing year. During 2011, total are on which wheat crop is cultivated ranges up to160 hectares, which produces 418 tons of wheat. Similarly, in 2012 the total area under wheat cultivation was recorded around 168 hectares.
 
Health:
Kunduz has a total of 72 health centers with the largest one is comprised 250-beds and another one is 50-beds hospital in district Imam Sahib.
In addition 15 clinics, 32 health centers of (BHC) and 14 mobile clinics of (HSC) provide health services to the people of the province.
Employees of provincial public health department serving the people include 143 doctors, 145 nurses, 90 midwives, 103 vaccinator, 48 laboratory technicians, 574 social health employees including 226 civil servants.
As many as 299 health centers serves the community in far-flung areas of the province but people still complain about lack of health facilities in their localities.
Traditional sports such as Buzkashi are being held annually, which is a known and popular sport event in the province.
In addition, other sports such as football, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, chess, baseball and swimming are gaining popularity among youth of Kunduz.
Currently, around 18 sport related federations are functioning in the province in which hundreds of youth including female are being professionally trained in different sports.