Balkh (Persian: بلخ - Balḫ), also known as Bactra, was once a major worl city but was destroyed entirely by the Mongols. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, northern Afghanistan, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some 74 km (46 miles) south of the Amu Darya, the Oxus River of antiquity, of which a tributary formerly flowed past Balkh. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan. The majority of people in this city speak Farsi.