Afghanistan
Afghanistan Tourism
Friendly, beautiful Afghanistan was
once well known on the backpacking
circuit as the place to stop for
unparalleled hospitality, fantastic
food, great hiking. But then, things
kept changing. More than 20 years of
war have left the dramatic countryside
peppered with landmines and reduced
many of the finest monuments and
minarets to rubble. The poverty left
in war's wake has taken an impossible
human toll and encouraged the theft
and sale of priceless national
treasures.
Orientation
Afghanistan is a totally landlocked
country slightly larger than France,
with an extremely rugged topography.
It borders Iran, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China and
Pakistan, and is strategically
important to all. The mighty Hindu
Kush (Killer of Hindus) mountain
range, the western extremity of the
Himalaya, runs across the country from
east to west. The average elevation of
this mountainous interior is a lofty
2700m (8856 ft) and the highest peaks
reach 7500m (24,600ft) in the
northeast. From here rise the major
rivers of Afghanistan. The Kabul river
flows east into the Indus while most
others such as the Helmand, Farah and
Harirud disappear into the desert
sands. To the north of the Hindu Kush
are the low lying plains of Afghan
Turkistan and the border marked by the
Amu-Darya (Oxus). To the south
stretches the dry, dusty Dasht-i-Margo,
or Desert of Death.
Events
One of the most
important holidays in Afghanistan is
Navrus (New Days), celebrated around
March 21, on the spring equinox. It's
an Islamic adaptation of far more
ancient festivities, and special foods
- wheat for the ladies and veal for
the men - are prepared. Navrus is a
family affair these days, though some
communities still take it into the
streets.
The four major Islamic
holidays are celebrated according to
the lunar calendar, so check the dates
and plan ahead. Eid-ul-Azha, the Feast
of Sacrifice, marks the beginning of
the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.
Those who can afford it buy and
slaughter an animal, then share the
meat with friends and strangers.
Ramadan is the month of fasting.
Eid-ul-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan,
when friends and families gather to
eat, eat and, if so inclined, smoke
cigarettes.
Attractions: Kabul
The
capital of Afghanistan was never a
terribly attractive or interesting
city, something that has certainly not
improved during the last 20 years of
conflict. The Soviets left the city
reasonably intact in 1989, but since
then Kabul has been virtually
destroyed by bombardments and street
battles, with an estimated loss of
some 30,000 lives. The Kabul Museum,
which used to have one of the finest
collections of antiquities in Asia,
has had nearly three-quarters of its
finest collections looted. It's still
possible to see the remaining
artifacts - those without any
significant monetary value. It was
also once possible to walk the
five-hour length of the crumbling
walls around the ancient citadel, Bala
Hissar. The pleasant Gardens of Babur,
were once a cool retreat near the city
walls.
Nuristan
Northeast of Kabul, Nuristan (Land of
Light) is mountainous, remote,
little-visited and of great
ethnological interest - and memorably
described in Eric Newby's hilarious A
Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.
Shahr-i-Zohak (The Red City) enshrines
the remains of an ancient citadel
which guarded Bamiyan, and is about
17km (11mi) before Bamiyan itself and
180km (112mi) northwest of Kabul. This
was once the centre of the Ghorid
kingdom. Bamiyan was once home to the
Great Buddhas, which stood 35m (114ft)
and 53m (174ft) high, and were
enclosed within dramatic shrines
carved from the cliff walls. Built
between the 2nd and 5th centuries,
these ancient giants were destroyed by
Taliban officials in 2001. You can
still visit the shrines, though little
remains. Shar-i-Gholgola is the most
important ruined city in the valley.
The name means 'city of sighs,' and
climbing to the top of a dramatic
nearby cliff to look across the valley
at the Buddhas used to be a popular
activity. The sighs of visitors
continue to echo from the peak, though
their timbre has changed. The
incredible lakes of Band-i-Amir (Dam
of the King) boast clear, cold blue
water dammed by sulphurous deposits
and surrounded by towering pink
cliffs. It's located 75km (47mi)
beyond Bamiyan.
Ghazni
The modern town of Ghazni is just a
pale shadow of its former glory. The
city is only 150km (93mi) southwest of
Kabul on the road to Kandahar, but
poor roads mean the trip still takes
most of the day. Ghazni today is known
mainly for its fine bazaar, featuring
goods from Afghanistan and surrounding
countries. The carefully restored tomb
of Abdul Razzak and the museum within
are of interest. There are also some
very fine minarets, the excavations of
the Palace of Masud and, most
surprisingly, a recently discovered
Buddhist stupa that has survived from
long before the Arab invasion of the
7th century.
Kandahar
Kandahar is situated in the far south
of the country, about midway between
Kabul and Herat. It's the
second-largest city in Afghanistan and
lies at an important crossroads, where
the main thoroughfare from Kabul
branches northwest to Herat and
southeast to Quetta in Pakistan.
Kandahar lies very much in the Pashto
heartland. Kandahar's great treasure,
a cloak that once belonged to the
Prophet, is safely locked away from
infidel eyes in the Mosque of the
Sacred Cloak, known locally as Da
Kherqa Sharif Ziarat. A few kilometres
from the centre of Kandahar towards
Herat are the Chihil Zina, or Forty
Steps. They lead up to a niche carved
in the rock by Babur, founder of the
Mogul empire, which is guarded by two
stone lions.
Herat
Herat was once a small, provincial,
relatively green, laze-about place
that everyone seemed to like, an
easy-going oasis after a lot of hassle
and dry desert. In the 15th century,
Herat was the Timurid centre of art,
poetry, miniature painting and music,
blending Persian, Central Asian and
Afghan cultures to create one of
Central Asia's cultural highlights.
The Friday Mosque, or Masjid-i-Jami,
is Herat's number one attraction and
among the finest Islamic buildings in
the world, certainly the finest in
Afghanistan. It has some exquisite
Timurid tilework to complement its
graceful architecture. The covered
bazaar in Char souq is a complex of
all sorts of shops and artisans'
workshops. A short walk from the city
centre are the remains of an old
medressa (1417), built by the Queen
Gaur Shad. The wife of Timurid ruler
Shah Rukh, Gaur Shad was Timur's
daughter-in-law and a remarkable woman
in her own right, who kept the empire
intact for many years. Her mausoleum
still stands near the medressa, a
carbon copy of the Gur Emir in
Samarkand. The shrine complex of Gazar
Gah (1425) is about 5km (3mi) east of
Herat. The tomb of Abdullah Ansar, a
famous Sufi mystic and poet who died
in Herat in 1088, is the main
attraction. The Afghan King Dost
Mohammed and the famous Persian poet
Jami are also buried here. The
65m-high (123ft) Minaret of Jam, 313km
(194mi) from Herat and around 550km
(341mi) from Kabul, is the second
highest in the world, as well as one
of the oldest, dating back some 800
years.
Environment
Afghanistan's dramatic landscape
encompasses a variety of biomes, from
arid steppes to alpine fields. The
seismically active mountains of the
Hindu Kush, where most of the
country's water falls as snow, are
home to many plants and animals that
exist nowhere else on Earth. The
steppes and intermediary ecosystems
are also of interest to the amateur
biologist. But, as with many places in
the former USSR, land and water
mismanagement led to the destruction
of many of these unique natural
habitats. Unexploded artillery,
landmines of every vicious sort and
other implements of destruction are
hidden in hill and vale; no one in
their right mind would hike here
without pushing a very large, very
light metal detector in front of them.
Though Afghanistan's tough wildlife
would likely recover given just a
moment of peace.
Visa
requirements:
1. One visa
application form.
2. One
passport-sized photo (attached with
cellophane tape).
3. Your passport,
valid for at least 3 months past the
end date of your trip.
4. If you
are a U.S. alien resident, provide a
copy of your Green Card.
* A
letter of introduction stating the
purpose of your trip and sponsorship
information. You will also need to
include a financial guarantee Visa
application fee. (Money orders
preferred.)
- Visa processed on
the same day: $100.00
- Visa
processed in three days: $70.00
-
Visa processed in two weeks: $50.00
* If you are applying by mail,
please include a prepaid,
self-addressed return envelope. You
may use Certified or Registered U.S.
mail, or a Federal Express or UPS
shipping envelope
FLIGHT
SCHEDULES:
Kabul ――>
Frankfurt, Istanbul, Dubai, Sharjah,
Tehran, Delhi, Amritsar, Islamabad,
Herat, Mazare-Sharif
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