Afghanistan is completely landlockedthe nearest coast lies along the Arabian Sea, about 300 miles (480 km) to the southand, because of both its isolation and its volatile political history, it remains one of the most poorly surveyed areas of the world. It is bounded to the east and south by Pakistan to the west by Iran to the north by the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. It also has a short border with Xinjiang, China, at the end of the long, narrow (Wakhan Corridor), in the extreme northeast.