Where is Nushki?

Nushki is a town and district in Balochistan, Pakistan, lying in a plain south-west of Quetta, at an elevation of 880 metres (2,900 feet) above sea level. From Nushki, the flat Balochistan desert stretches away northward and westward to the Helmand River. It was ruled over by the Mandai tribe for approximately 1000 years until the arrival of the British, who used it as the starting off point for their exploration of Central Asia.

The British, concerned that their colonies in India would be attacked overland by either Napoleon or the Russians, sent two British officers, Captain Charles Christie and Lieutenant Henry Pottinger, to explore the regions between Balochistan and Persia (now Iran), which was then allied with the British. Christie and Pottinger travelled from the coast to Kelat (now Kalat) and separated at Nushki on 22 March 1810, with Christie going northwest to Herat and Pottinger traveling west across the deserts. It was unlikely that either of the two men would be accepted by the locals, and they concealed their identities by posing as horse-traders or holy men during their respective journeys. They were reunited in Isfahan on 30 June 1810, with each of them having ridden more than 3,600 km (2,250 miles).

In 1998, Nushki (then a subdivision of Chagai District in Pakistan) had a total population of 98,000. During the 1998 census, 92% of the population reported their first language as Brahvi/Balochi, while 4.8% reported as Pashto speaking.