Herāt, Afghanistan · UTC+4:30 ☆

Herat is in the Afghanistan Time timezone (AFT/UTC+4:30), year-round with no daylight saving.

Herāt is Afghanistan’s third-largest city and the cultural heart of the country’s west, close to the border with Iran. It runs on Afghanistan Time, UTC+4:30, the same as Kabul and all of Afghanistan. No daylight saving.

UTC+4:30 is one of a small number of 30-minute offset timezones still in active use globally. Afghanistan shares this characteristic with India (UTC+5:30), Myanmar (UTC+6:30), and Iran (UTC+3:30 standard), all countries that chose non-integer offsets for historical or political reasons.

A Silk Road city

Herāt was one of the great cities of the medieval Islamic world, a center of commerce, scholarship, and art. The Timurid period, in the fifteenth century, was its zenith: Herāt rivaled Samarkand as a hub of Central Asian culture. Merchants, scholars, and travelers from the Silk Road passed through, bringing with them different calendar systems and daily schedules.

The city’s position as a crossroads means it has always had to coordinate with different time systems. Today it must coordinate with Iran to the west (UTC+3:30 or +4:30 with DST), Central Asian republics to the north (UTC+5), and Pakistan to the east (UTC+5).

The Persian calendar alongside the clock

Afghanistan officially uses both the Solar Hijri calendar (the Persian calendar) and the Islamic Hijri calendar alongside the Gregorian calendar. Solar Hijri year 1404 began in March 2025. Administrative deadlines, religious observances, and civil records may reference different calendrical systems.

Convert 9am Herāt time to other cities.

Sources

• IANA Time Zone Database
• Dupree, Nancy Hatch. A Historical Guide to Afghanistan. Afghan Tourist Organisation, 1977.
• Gregorian, Vartan. The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan. Stanford University Press, 1969.