Barkhan is a district in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It shares its borders with the province of Punjab to the east and the Balochistan districts of Dera Bugti to the south, Kohlu to the west, Loralai to the northwest and Musakhel to the north. The district’s headquarters is the town of Barkhan. It was granted the status of a separate district on 31 December 1991, prior to which it was a tehsil within Loralai District. Barkhan is the eighth-smallest district of Balochistan and has an area of 3,410 square kilometers. Barkhan District lies between 69°3′-70° 4′ East longitude and 29°37′-30°21′ North latitude, consisting of one tehsil and eight union councils. The location of Barkhan is 541 km (aerial distance) south-west (220 degrees bearing) of Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad and 245 km east (97 degrees bearing) from Quetta City, the provincial capital of Balochistan. During geological mapping and bio-stratigraphic research activity in Barkhan District, the geologists of the Geological Survey of Pakistan (GSP) discovered the first dinosaur fossils in PakistanBarkhan has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification ) with very hot summers and mild winters. Precipitation mainly falls in two distinct periods: light to moderate rain in the late winter and early spring from February to April, and heavier rain in the monsoon from June to September.
