
Following its conquest by Darius I of Persia, Afghanistan was absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire and segmented into satrapies governed by satraps. Key satrapies included Aria, roughly aligning with present-day Herat Province, bordered by mountain ranges and deserts separating it from neighboring regions, extensively documented by Ptolemy and Strabo. Arachosia, corresponding to areas around modern Kandahar, Lashkar Gah, and Quetta, neighbored Drangiana, Paropamisadae, and Gedrosia. Its residents, the Iranian Arachosians or Arachoti, are speculated to have links to the ethnic Pashtun tribes, historically referred to as Paktyans.
Bactriana, positioned north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs, and south of the Tian Shan with the Amu Darya river coursing west through Balkh, was a significant Achaemenid territory. Sattagydia, described by Herodotus as part of the empire's Seventh tax district alongside Gandārae, Dadicae, and Aparytae, likely extended east of the Sulaiman Mountains to the Indus River, near today's Bannu. Gandhara, matching the areas of contemporary Kabul, Jalalabad, and Peshawar, further delineated the empire's extensive reach.