Kabul
When the Taliban fled Kabul in the face of the post-9/11 US bombing campaign, they left a city wrecked by years of war.
When the Taliban fled Kabul in the face of the post-9/11 US bombing campaign, they left a city wrecked by years of war.
Perhaps more than any other city in Afghanistan, Herat speaks of the country’s position at the heart of the Silk Road.
The mention of Afghanistan’s second-largest city conjures up a collage of terrorist training camps, rugged terrain, warlords, narcotics, fierce tribes and the War on Terror.
Mazar-e Sharif is north Afghanistan’s sprawling urban centre, a relatively modern city standing on the wide steppes near the border with Uzbekistan.
Bamiyan sits at the heart of the Hazarajat in a wide valley braided with mountain rivers and is one of the poorest yet most beautiful parts of Afghanistan.
Jalalabad, Afghanistan’s largest eastern city and the capital of Nangahar province, lies roughly equidistant between Kabul and the Pakistan border at Torkham.
The largely Uzbek and Tajik town of Kunduz lies amid rich agricultural land, and is one of Afghanistan’s most stable and thriving towns.
Astride the fast-flowing Kokcha River, Faizabad is a largely Tajik town, home to the rump Afghan government during the Taliban era.
The capital of Faryab, the largely Uzbek town of Maimana has an easy-going provincial air.
This section covering Chaghcheran to Herat, includes Chaghcheran, the Minaret of Jam, Chist-e Sharif and Obey.
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