Afghanistan is a fascinating country with a long history of war that includes the rise and fall of many different empires. This has earned it the nickname “The Graveyard of Empires.” The last three decades in Afghanistan have been particularly chaotic, starting with the invasion of the Soviet Union leading eventually to the removal of the Taliban by the United States and Nato. It is still considered an active war zone today with the Taliban constantly attacking the Afghan government. Virtually every foreign government has travel advisories warning their citizens against any and all travel to Afghanistan. Yet still, every year more and more intrepid travelers are finding their way to this alluring and fascinating place.
I started my journey in Dubai, I was headed to Mazari Sharif but had a layover in Kabul. I was simultaneously excited and terrified about the adventures to come. The flight from Dubai to Kabul was a direct flight that left at 3:00 am and arrived at 6:20 am. I immediately felt a little out of place as I was the only westerner on a sold out flight. When I landed I had to go through customs and the border agent kept asking why I was there, I kept telling him tourism but he couldn’t believe it. He kept asking if I was military or foreign aid and I assured him I was there for tourism, he just laughed, stamped my passport and said “Welcome to Afghanistan.” After customs I had to leave the international terminal and find the domestic one to catch my flight to Mazari Sharif. I found the departure hall in the domestic terminal and it was basically a large room with a few seats and hundreds of men standing shoulder to shoulder, fighting to get through the only gate. There was no TV with flight information so I had to ask the one flight attendant that was yelling in Dari to let me know when my flight was up, luckily he also knew enough English that he was able to help me out. It was a short flight to Mazari Sharif on Kam Air, a local Afghan Airline.
The Mazar airport was a small modern airport that was quite easy to navigate and I was able to find my guide and driver right away.
The first place we went was the center of Mazar for some lunch. We had lamb kebab and pilaf. Pilaf is rice with some spices and little pieces of meat, it’s very common all over Central Asia.
After lunch I went to check into my hotel and relax for a little bit before heading north to Balkh for the afternoon. Balkh is an interesting town in Northern Afghanistan believed to be the center of the Bactrian Empire. It’s one of Afghanistans oldest towns. It’s the birthplace of Zoroaster and even Alexander the Great camped here. Throughout history it has had a rough time being destroyed by everyone from Ghengis Khan to Timur-i-Lang, but there are still plenty of interesting things to see here.
The first place we stopped at was the Haji Piyada Mosque. This mosque was built in the 9th century only two centuries after the beginning of Islam. It’s been weathered over the years and most of it has collapsed but there is still some very interesting architectural treasures to see here.
This has been a very important site in Northern Afghanistan and in the interest of preservation it now it has a roof over it, a fence around it and people that look after it.
The next place we went to Bala Hisar. This is the fortification around the ancient city of Balkh. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site candidate.
After Bala Hisar we went into the center of Balkh and visited the Shrine of Khoja Abu Nasar Parsa. The shrine is a beautiful Timurid design from the 15th century. I love the Timurid designs of the 15th century that are found throughout the Silk Road. Khoja Parsa was a spiritual leader and theological lecturer from Herat. Historians have argued about wether he is actually buried here or not, but its a pretty incredible piece of architecture either way.
Adjacent from the Shrine of Khoja Parsa is the tomb of Rabia Balkhi. She was a famous Persian poet that was sealed in the basement by her brother after having an affair. Supposedly she wrote her most famous poem on the wall in her own blood as she died.
After visiting Rabia Balkhi’s Tomb we drove back to Mazari Sharif. Mazar is an interesting place and one of the safest towns to visit in Afghanistan. They believe Ali bin Talib, the 4th Caliph of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad’s son-in law was buried in Mazar (The rest of the Islamic world believes he was buried in Najaf, Iraq). So they built a beautiful blue mosque over his body and a town around the mosque. The mosque is called the Shrine of Hazrat Ali and it’s definitely one of the most beautiful mosque’s in the world
The Blue Mosque was definitely a highlight of Afghanistan for me. The architecture Is very well preserved and the local people were extremely friendly. There are many white pigeons near the mosque that you can feed grain, they definitely add to the magic of the place.
Now it was time to return to my hotel, I was exhausted after such a long day, it was time for rest. On the way there I saw the strangest thing and had to get some photos of it. I saw a taxi with a man sitting in the trunk, the only other person in the car was the driver. I was told sometimes people prefer to ride that way. I don’t know If I buy that or not, but nonetheless it was happening here.
The next day we drove southeast to the Samangan Province to visit the city of Haibak for lunch. It was very interesting to see a small town in the Samangan Province. The city has been influenced by Buddhist, Islamic, Turkic, and Persian peoples.
For lunch we had kebabs with bread and pilaf.
After lunch we went to visit Takht-i Rustam which means the Throne of Rustam, a hilltop settlement dating between the 4th-5th centuries. It contains a stupa-monastery complex that is completely carved into the rock. This is a pretty amazing archeological site. The caves were hewn out of rocks and inhabited by Buddhists. I’m very happy that the Taliban did not decide to destroy this beautiful piece of history like they did in Bamiyan.
Some of the locals saw me on the hill top and decided to come over to say hello. They were very polite and wanted to take photos. Some of them brought eggs for sale as well.
On the way back to Mazar we stopped in Kholm, also known as Tashkurgan, to see the Bagh-e Jahan Nama Palace. The palace was built at the end of the 19th century by Amir Abdur Rahman. The place was restored in the 70’s with the original plan of turning it into a museum but that was put on hold due to the Soviet invasion. There have been attempts since then to finish restoration but due to conflicts over time it hasn’t yet been completed. There are still relics of war to be seen, such as the tank outside the palace walls.
Next we drove back to Mazar and stopped at the central bazaar because I wanted to purchase a couple Afghan rugs to bring home. One for myself and one as a wedding gift for one of my friends. I found a couple of excellent rugs and got a very nice deal on them. The shop keeper rolled them up and put them in a burlap sack for me. The fun part was figuring out how I was gonna carry them on the rest of my trip. I still had three countries to visit!
After dinner we went to a local Afghan house to relax and enjoy some shisha!
Now it was time for sleep, I was exhausted after my second day in Afghanistan. The next morning after breakfast I went to see a Buzkashi match. Buzkashi is the national sport of Afghanistan, also popular in some of the other Central Asian countries. It translates to “goat pulling” and involves men on horseback attempting to put a decapitated goat or calf carcass on a goal. The winner takes a prize, often times it is a money reward. Most of the men that compete are sponsored by wealthy Afghans that are often warlords from different parts of the country. It is considered a rite of passage to compete in Buzkashi in Northern Afghanistan. This was definitely a highlight of my trip.
Buzkashi was incredible to see, I was very lucky that this worked out timing wise, it wasn’t originally part of the plan. Actually the original plan was to fly to Herat later that day but after going to the airport I found out that that leg of my flight was cancelled. I could still go to Kabul if I wanted, and since my flight to Turkey in three days was departing from Kabul I decided to try my luck. Kabul wasn’t originally part of my itinerary because I found the city a little intimidating security wise. Actually while I was in the Mazar airport waiting for my flight to Kabul I made the mistake of checking the news and saw that earlier that morning there had been a car bombing, there were no fatalities but it was still pretty worrisome. Luckily my friend Noor in Mazar was able to set me up with a guide and driver that took me to a guesthouse near Chicken Street. The guide was his cousin Matty, he is a professional kick boxer. Shortly after I left Afghanistan Matty had a kick boxing match in Bangkok, this would be the first time he left Afghanistan, he did very well! That night he had me compile a list of all the things I’d like to see and he would go through it and let me know which ones were safe and which were not. After breakfast the next morning we went to the Ziarat-e Sakhi or Sakhi Shrine. This is a beautiful mosque in the north of Kabul built by the king of Afghanistan Ahmed Shah Durani 1747-1773. It was built as a place to put the Kherqe Nabi (Prophet Mohammed’s outfit) while it was being transported from Bukhara to Kandahar.
The next place we went was the National Museum of Afghanistan. Originally this museum was said to be one of finest in the world, but after the civil war in 1992 a lot of the artifacts were either looted or destroyed by the Taliban. The building itself took extensive damage from rocket shells. Despite all of the unfortunate recent events the museum is still a lovely place that is definitely worth a visit.
In very close proximity to the National Museum is Darul Aman Palace. This was once a beautiful palace built in the 1920’s by King Amanullah Khan. Over the years it took some serious damage. It was lit on fire during the Soviet invasion in the 70’s and bombed and gutted by the Taliban in the 90’s. The Taliban removed the vehicles from the garage that belonged to the former king and used them as target practice. In 2019 they began renovations on the palace and hope to be finished by 2020.
The next place we went to was the Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque, also known as the Mosque of the King of Two Swords. This is a beautiful two story yellow mosque located next to the tomb of Mughal general Chin Timur Khan. Also buried near here is Babur and other Mughal Muslim commanders that invaded India.
The last place I got to visit was Chicken Street. This is a very famous shopping area in central Kabul which was actually right by my home stay, so that worked out pretty nicely. It’s known for selling antiques and rugs as well as jewelry and many other things, however you will be hard pressed to find any chickens here. Three months before my visit the Taliban drove an ambulance bomb in the shopping area killing 95 people on Chicken Street. It didn’t really seem to being slowing down the shoppers while I was there. Life goes on. I asked my guide Matty what he thought about all the attacks and he said you can’t be worried about it, you just have to live your life the best you can.
Afghanistan is a beautiful country with so much potential. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in both Mazar and Kabul and hope to come back again someday. The next day I had a flight to Diyarbakir where eventually I would board a bus to Erbil.
