In another symbolic step toward the exit from Afghanistan, the United States on Tuesday formally handed Kyrgyzstan control of Manas Air Base, once a major staging point for personnel and cargo bound for the Afghan war.

For hundreds of thousands of American and NATO service members, the base, formally known as the Transit Center at Manas, was the last stop before entering the war zone and the first stop after leaving. It was also the home of a United States Air Force logistics and refueling operation involved in daily operations in Afghanistan. Col. John Millard, the American commander at the base, told reporters at the handover ceremony that the Air Wing there loaded more than a billion liters of fuel for coalition aircraft over the years of the war.

Manas was one of two American bases hastily set up in Central Asia to support the invasion of Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The other, in Uzbekistan, closed in 2005.

Despite its major role as a staging base, Manas never completely lost the trappings of an ad hoc military camp. Sand-filled Hesco barriers were the first sign that visitors had finished passing through the remnants of the old Soviet air base at the site and were entering the main transit center. Modular buildings contained the most vital functions, but the men and women coming through would while away the hours before their flights in large, white tents that dotted the site.