On the Hippie Trail: Afghanistan
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Herat, West Afghanistan: girls in front of the Grand Mosque
Two Danish guys in a Volkswagen van offered me a ride from Mashad (Iran, 200 kilometres from the Afghan border) all the way to Kabul.
Grand Mosque in Herat
Herat: main street
Countryside near Herat
Caravan in Kandahar
Kandahar: turbans and burqa
Inside an Afghan café
Kabul
Flying over the Hindu Kush to Bamiyan
The Twin Otter of Bakhtar Afghan
Airlines on the Bamiyan landing
strip. The plane is reported to have crashed in 1973.
Bamiyan valley at dawn. Several caves
holding gigantic Buddha statues,
two of which are clearly visible on
this
picture, were carved in the sandstone cliff more than 1500 years ago.
The site, on the legendary Silk Road, was then
a great centre of Greco-Buddhist culture. Bamiyan valley is situated 230 km
northwest of Kabul at an altitude of
2500 metres.
The cave with the tallest Buddha
statue (near the centre of this picture) is over 55 metres high.
The tallest Buddha from nearby. Many
centuries ago, it's face was erased by islamic invaders. In
2001, the Taliban finished the job: they destroyed
the Buddha statues with artillery and explosives.
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© Hans Roodenburg (The
Netherlands), 2006
hansroodenburg.nl
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