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Top Attractions in Afghanistan

Kabul

Kabul is the capital of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan as well as the largest city of Afghanistan, located in the eastern section of the country. According to a 2012 estimate, the population of the city was around 3,289,000, which includes all the major ethnic groups. It is the 64th largest and the 5th fastest growing city in the world. Kabul is over 3,500 years old and many empires have controlled the city which is at a strategic location along the trade routes of South and Central Asia. It has been ruled by the Achaemenids, Seleucids, Mauryans, Kushans, Kabul Shahis, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, and Ghurids. Later it was controlled by the Mughal Empire until finally becoming part of the Durrani Empire with help from the Afsharid dynasty. During the Soviet war in Afghanistan the city continued to be an economic center and was relatively safe. Between 1992 and 1996, a civil war between militant groups devastated Kabul and caused the deaths of thousands of civilians, serious damage to infrastructure, and an exodus of refugees. Since the Taliban's fall from power in November 2001, the Afghan government and other countries have attempted to rebuild the city, although the Taliban insurgents have slowed the re-construction efforts and staged major attacks against the government, the NATO-led forces, foreign diplomats and Afghan civilians. The city of Kabul has a population of3,564,855. It has 22 districts and a total land area of 103,049 Hectar. The total number of dwellings in Kabul is 396,095.

Herāt

Herat is the second largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 808,110, and serves as the capital of Herat province, situated in the fertile valley of the Hari River. It is linked with Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif via highway 1 or the ring road. It is further linked to the city of Mashhad in neighboring Iran through the border town of Islam Qala. Herat dates back to the Avestan times and was traditionally known for its wine. The city has a number of historic sites, including the Herat Citadel and the Mosallah Complex. During the Middle Ages Herat became one of the important cities of Khorasan, as it was known as the Pearl of Khorasan. It has been governed by various Afghan rulers since the early 18th century. In 1717, the city was invaded by the Hotaki forces until they were expelled by the Afsharids in 1736. After Nadir Shah's death and Ahmad Shah Durrani's rise to power in 1747, Herat became part of Afghanistan. It witnessed some political disturbances and military invasions during the early half of the 19th century but the 1857 Treaty of Paris ended hostilities of the Anglo-Persian War. Herat suffered from extensive destruction during the Soviet war in the 1980s, but certain parts of the city has been spared from it. Herat lies on the ancient trade routes of the Middle East, Central and South Asia. The roads from Herat to Iran, Turkmenistan, and other parts of Afghanistan are still strategically important. As the gateway to Iran, it collects high amount of customs revenue for Afghanistan. The city has an international airport. Herat is the Regional Hub in western Afghanistan in close proximity to Iran and Turkmenistan. Herat has high residential density clustered around the core of the city. However vacant plots account for a higher percentage of the city than residential land use and agricultural is the largest percentage of total land use . The total population of Herat City is 808,110.

Kandahār

Kandahar or Qandahar is the second-largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 491,500 as of 2012. Formerly called Alexandria Arachosia, the city is named after Alexander the Great, who founded it in 329 BC around a small ancient Arachosian town. Kandahar is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at an altitude of 1,010 m above sea level. The Arghandab River runs along the west of the city. The city of Kandahar has a population of 557,118. Tt has 15 districts and a total land area of 27,337 Hectar. The total number of dwellings in Kandahar is 61,902. Kandahar is one of the most culturally significant cities of the Pashtuns and has been their traditional seat of power for more than 200 years. It is a major trading center for sheep, wool, cotton, silk, felt, food grains, fresh and dried fruit, and tobacco. The region produces fine fruits, especially pomegranates and grapes, and the city has plants for canning, drying, and packing fruit, and is a major source of marijuana and hashish. The area is believed to be the birthplace of cannabis indica. Kandahar has an international airport and extensive road links with Lashkar Gah and Herat to the west, Ghazni and Kabul to the northeast, Tarinkot to the north, and Quetta in neighboring Balochistan to the south. The region around Kandahar is one of the oldest known human settlements. Alexander the Great had laid-out the foundation of what is now Old Kandahar in the 4th century BC and gave it the Ancient Greek name Αλεξάνδρεια Aραχωσίας (Alexandria of Arachosia). Many empires have long fought over the city due to its strategic location along the trade routes of southern, central and western Asia. In 1709, Mirwais Hotak made the region an independent kingdom and turned Kandahar into the capital of the Hotak dynasty. In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the last Afghan empire, made it the capital of modern Afghanistan. Since the 1978 Marxist revolution, the city has been a magnet for groups such as the Pakistan-based Haqqani network, Quetta Shura, Hezbi Islami, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, many of which are believed to receive support from Pakistan's ISI spy network. From late 1994 to 2001, it served as the capital of the Taliban government until they were toppled by US-led NATO forces during Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2001 and replaced by the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Buddhas of Bamiyan

The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th-century monumental statues of standing buddha carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, 230 km northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters . Built in 507 AD and 554 AD, the statues represented the classic blended style of Gandhara art. The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, practically all of which wore away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands and folds of the robes; the larger one was painted carmine red and the smaller one was painted multiple colors. The lower parts of the statues arms were constructed from the same mud-straw mix while supported on wooden armatures. It is believed that the upper parts of their faces were made from great wooden masks or casts. Rows of holes that can be seen in photographs were spaces that held wooden pegs that stabilized the outer stucco. They were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, after the Taliban government declared that they were idols. An envoy visiting the United States in the following weeks explained that they were destroyed to protest international aid exclusively reserved for statue maintenance while Afghanistan was experiencing famine, while the Afghan Foreign Minister claimed that the destruction was merely about carrying out Islamic religious iconoclasm. International opinion strongly condemned the destruction of the Buddhas, which in the following years was primarily viewed as an example of the extreme religious intolerance of the Taliban. Japan and Switzerland, among others, have pledged support for the rebuilding of the statues.

Darul Aman Palace

Darul Aman Palace is a European-style palace, now ruined, located about sixteen kilometers outside of the center of Kabul, Afghanistan. Darul Aman Palace was built in the early 1920s as a part of the endeavours of King Amanullah Khan to modernize Afghanistan. It was to be part of the new capital city that the king intended to build, connected to Kabul by a narrow gauge railway. The palace is an imposing neoclassical building on a hilltop overlooking a flat, dusty valley in the western part of the Afghan capital. Intended as the seat of a future parliament, the building was unused for many years after religious conservatives forced Amanullah from power and halted his reforms. Darul Aman Palace was gutted by fire in 1969. It was restored to house the Defence Ministry during the 1970s and 1980s. In the Communist coup of 1978, the building was set on fire. It was damaged again as rival Mujahideen factions fought for control of Kabul in the early 1990s. Heavy shelling by the Mujahideen after the end of the Soviet invasion left the building a gutted ruin. In 2005, a plan was unveiled to refurbish the palace for use as the seat of Afghanistans future parliament. It was to be funded primarily by private donations from foreigners and wealthy Afghans. As of July 2010 there were no signs of renovation of the palace. The palace was reportedly part of the targets in attacks launched on 15 April 2012 for which the Taliban claimed responsibility. On a hill near the Darul Aman Palace stands the Tajbeg Palace, built as a residence for Amanullah, his wife, Queen Soraya, and their family.

Ghaznī

Ghaznī (Pashto: غزني‎, Persian: غزنی‎‎) or Ghaznai (غزنی), also historically known as Ghaznīn (غزنين) or Ghazna (غزنه), is a city in Afghanistan with a population of nearly 150,000 people. It is located in the central-east part of the country. Situated on a plateau at 7,280 feet (2,219 m) above sea level, the city serves as the capital of Ghazni Province. It is linked by a highway with Kandahar to the southwest, Kabul to the northeast, and Gardez and Khost to the east. The foundation stone of Ghazni Airport was laid in April 2012 which now serves Ghazni and other nearby eastern Afghan provinces. Like other cities in Afghanistan, Ghazni is very old and has witnessed many military invasions. During the pre-Islamic period, the area was inhabited by various tribes who practiced different religions including Buddhism and Hinduism. Arab Muslims introduced Islam to Ghazni in the 7th century; they were followed by the 9th century Islamic conquest of the Saffarids from Zarang in the west. Sabuktigin made Ghazni the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire in the 10th century. The city was destroyed by one of the Ghurid rulers, but later rebuilt. It fell to a number of regional powers, including the Timurids and the Delhi Sultanate, until it became part of the Hotaki dynasty, which was followed by the Durrani Empire or modern Afghanistan. During the First Anglo-Afghan War in the 19th century, Ghazni was partially destroyed by British-Indian forces. The city is currently being rebuilt by the Government of Afghanistan in remembrance of the Ghaznavid and Timurid era when it served as a major center of Islamic civilisation. The Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) have established bases and check-points to deal with the Taliban insurgency. Ghazni is a Trading and Transit Hub in central Afghanistan. Agriculture is the dominant land use at 28%. In terms of built-up land area, vacant plots (33%) slightly outweigh residential area (31%). Districts 3 and 4 also have large institutional areas. The city of Ghazni has a population of 143,379 (2015) with 4 Police districts (nahia) and total land area of 3,330 Hectares. There are 15,931 total number of dwellings in Ghazni city.

Herat Citadel

The Citadel of Herat, also known as the Citadel of Alexander, and locally known as Qala Iktyaruddin, is located in the center of Herat in Afghanistan. It dates back to 330 BC, when Alexander the Great and his army arrived to what is now Afghanistan after the Battle of Gaugamela. Many empires have used it as a headquarters in the last 2,000 years, and was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries. This historic citadel was saved from demolition in the 1950s, and was excavated and restored by UNESCO between 1976 and 1979. From decades of wars and neglect, the citadel began to crumble but in recent years several international organizations decided to completely rebuild it. The National Museum of Herat is also housed inside the citadel, while the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture is the caretaker of the whole premises.

Abdul Rahman Mosque

The Abdul Rahman Mosque, also known as the Grand Mosque of Kabul, is one of the largest mosques in Afghanistan. It is located in one of Kabuls commercial areas called Deh Afghanan, near the Pashtunistan Square and across from the once popular Plaza Hotel. The building is a three story, which is built on 3.5 acres of land. One floor of the building is dedicated to women only. The mosque is named after an influential Afghan businessman named Hajji Abdul Rahman who has died but his sons continued the project. Construction of the mosque began in 2001 by Hajji Abdur Rahman but was delayed for several years due to red tape. The mosque has the capacity to serve 10,000 people at a time. There is also a madrasa inside the mosque and a library containing 150,000 books. The major work on the mosque was completed in late 2009 but the official inauguration took place in July 2012 which was attended by the former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and many other high-ranking officials. The building of the mosque is said to have been initially designed by Afghan architect Mir Hafizullah Hashimi.

Id Gah Mosque

Id Gah Mosque or Eid Gah Mosque is the second largest mosque in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. It is considered the cardinal religious mosque in the country, where a million people offer Eid prayers twice a year. It is located near the Mahmud Khan bridge and National Stadium in the eastern part of the city, in the Shar-e-barq of Kabul, which is one of the wealthier areas of the city. The Id Gah means "Prayer Ground" where people congregate during national and religious celebrations. The open grounds of Id Gah are also used as a parking lot for trucks that transport goods to and from Peshawar. In most references Babur, a Muslim warrior at the time had just invaded and devastated India and ordered a Mosque be built to glorify Islam, he had his warriors bring back precious stone from the Punjab, Sindh and surrounding areas and had Persian architects build a structure for his Kabul subjects. It has been the scene of religious festivals, religious ceremonies, state functions such as coronations and priestly religious ceremonies attended by Kings and Amirs. It was from this mosque that the then Amir Habibullah made his historic announcement of his countrys independence, in 1919. The Id Gah Mosque was stated to be a target of attack when two suspects were arrested on February 10, 2006 with their vehicle found loaded with 8 kg of explosives.

Jama Masjid of Herat

The Jama Masjid of Herat, also known as the Masjid-i Jami of Herat, and the Great Mosque of Herat is a mosque in the city of Herat, in the Herat Province of north-western Afghanistan. It was built by Ghurids, the famous Sultan Ghayas-ud-Din Ghori, who laid its foundation in 1200 AD, and later extended by several rulers as Herat changed rulers down the centuries from the Timurids, to the Safavids, to the Mughals and the Uzbeks, all of whom supported the mosque. Though many of the glazed tiles have been replaced during subsequent periods, the Great Mosque in Herat was given its present form during the closing years of the fifteenth century. Apart from numerous small neighborhood mosques for daily prayer, most communities in the Islamic world have a larger mosque, a congregational mosque for Friday services with a sermon. The Jama Masjid was not always the largest mosque in Herat; a much larger complex the Mosque and Madressa of Gawharshad, also built by the Timurids, was located in the northern part of the city. However, those architectural monuments were dynamited by officers of the British Indian Army in 1885, to prevent its use as a fortress if a Russian army tried to invade India.

Noshaq

Noshaq is the second highest independent peak of the Hindu Kush Range after Tirich Mir (7,492 m (24,580 ft)) and lies on the border between Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan and Chitral District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The north and west sides of the mountain are in Afghanistan whereas the south and eastern sides are in Pakistan. Noshaq is Afghanistan's highest mountain and is located in the northeastern corner of the country along the Durand line which marks the border with Pakistan. It is the westernmost 7000m peak in the world. Easiest access to Noshaq is from Chitral, Pakistan. The first ascent of the mountain was in 1960 by Toshiaki Sakai and Goro Iwatsubo, members of a Japanese expedition. The climb followed the southeast ridge from the Qadzi Deh Glacier. Nowadays, the normal route is by the West ridge. The first winter ascent was in 1973 by Andrzej Zawada and Tadeusz Piotrowski, members of a Polish expedition, via the north face. It was the world's first winter climb above 7,000 m (22,966 ft). To date it is the only winter ascent to this summit. The first Afghan ascent of the mountain was in July 2009. Two members of a team of four Afghans from the Wakhan Corridor made the summit on July 19.

Tajbeg Palace

Tajbeg Palace or Tapa-e-Tajbeg is a Palace built in the 1920s and located about ten miles outside of the center of Kabul, Afghanistan. The stately mansion sits atop a knoll among foothills where the Afghan royal family once hunted and picnicked. It should not be confused with Darul Aman Palace, which is about 1.3 kilometres northeast from Tajbeg. Built to house the royal family, Tajbeg Palace is one of the most impressive landmarks of "Darulaman," newly created during the era of Amānullāh Khān by a team of European architects in an attempt to establish a new seat of government and modernize Afghanistan, both of which ultimately failed when religious conservatives forced Amānullāh from power and halted his reforms, leaving the palace in ruins as it has been for much of its existence.

National Museum of Afghanistan

The National Museum of Afghanistan , also known as the Afghan National Museum or sometimes the Kabul Museum, is a two-story building located 9 km southwest of the center of Kabul City in Afghanistan. As of 2014, the museum is under major expansion according to international standards, with a larger size adjoining garden for visitors to relax and walk around. The museums collection had earlier been one of the most important in Central Asia, with over 100,000 items dating back several millennia. With the start of the civil war in 1992, the museum was looted numerous times resulting in a loss of 70% of the 100,000 objects on display. Since 2007, a number of international organizations have helped to recover over 8,000 artifacts, the most recent being a limestone sculpture from Germany. Approximately 843 artifacts were returned by the United Kingdom in 2012, including the famous 1st Century Bagram Ivories.

Rag-i-Bibi

Rag-i-Bibi refers to a Sassanian rock relief on a cliff in modern Afghanistan. It first became known to western scholarship in 2002. It is located about a kilometre south of Shamarq and 10 km south of Puli Khumri. Rag-i-Bibi is the local name of the relief, which refers to Fatimah the daughter of Muhammad, who is venerated by the Shiites. The relief is 4.9 m high and 6.5 m wide. It has been largely destroyed, partially by weathering and partially by Taliban iconoclasm. At the end of Taliban rule, local villagers reported the relief to local authorities, since they feared it would be damaged. Thus, individual Taliban were conscious of the relief and damaged it on the grounds that local residents "worshipped" it. The relief shows a Sassanian king hunting an Indian rhinoceros. The king reins in a galloping horse. His figure would be about 2.4 m high if it were standing upright. Three figures stand around the king. Behind the ruler's horse, another two can be made out, which are poorly preserved. The upper portion of the relief shows a band of poorly preserved architectural features. The king's head is particularly severely damaged. The crown might enable an identification with a historical king; some stylistic details suggest that Shapur I is depicted. Stylistically, the relief contains Sassanian features, but also local Gandhara ones.

Oxus Treasure

The Oxus treasure is a collection of about 180 surviving pieces of metalwork in gold and silver, the majority rather small, plus perhaps about 200 coins, from the Achaemenid Persian period which were found by the Oxus river about 1877-1880. The exact place and date of the find remain unclear, and it is likely that many other pieces from the hoard were melted down for bullion; early reports suggest there were originally some 1500 coins, and mention types of metalwork that are not among the surviving pieces. The metalwork is believed to date from the sixth to fourth centuries BC, but the coins show a greater range, with some of those believed to belong to the treasure coming from around 200 BC. The most likely origin for the treasure is that it belonged to a temple, where votive offerings were deposited over a long period. How it came to be deposited is unknown. As a group, the treasure is the most important survival of what was once an enormous production of Achaemenid work in precious metal. It displays a very wide range of quality of execution, with the many gold votive plaques mostly crudely executed, some perhaps by the donors themselves, while other objects are of superb quality, presumably that expected by the court. The British Museum now has nearly all the surviving metalwork, with one of the pair of griffin-headed bracelets on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, and displays them in Room 52. The group arrived at the museum by different routes, with many items bequeathed to the nation by Augustus Wollaston Franks. The coins are more widely dispersed, and more difficult to firmly connect with the treasure. A group believed to come from it is in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Peterburg, and other collections have examples.

Shrine of the Cloak

The Shrine of the Cloak is located adjacent to the main mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It contains the Kerqa, a cloak believed to have been worn by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is therefore widely held to be one of the holiest Islamic sites in Afghanistan, and even considered by some as the "heart of Afghanistan". The buildings exteriors are of green marble from Lashkar Gah, with tiled surfaces and gilded archways. The cloak itself is locked away inside the mosque and is rarely seen. It has been guarded by the same family for over 250 years. Its guardians have traditionally only shown the cloak to recognized leaders of Afghanistan, although in times of great crisis such as natural disasters, it has been publicly displayed as a means of reassurance. The cloak was given to Amir Ahmad Shah Durrani by Amir Murad Beg of Bukhara in 1768 in order to solidify a treaty between the two leaders. An alternate account states that when Ahmad Shah had traveled to Bukhara, he saw the cloak of Muhammad. He then decided to take the artifact with him to Kandahar, and asked whether he could "borrow" the cloak from its keepers. They, worrying that he might try to remove it from Bukhara, told him it could not be taken from the city. Ahmad Shah then is said to have pointed to a heavy stela of stone firmly planted in the ground, saying that he would never take the cloak far from the stone. The keepers, gratified at his answer, handed him the cloak. Ahmad Shah then took the cloak, ordered the stone slab to be dug up, and carried them both back with him to Kandahar, where the stone now stands near his mazar . The cloak was last seen in public in 1996, when Mullah Omar, the up-and-coming leader of the Taliban, removed it from the shrine and donned the cloak while he stood atop a building, and in front of a large crowd of his followers. That symbolic act is commonly considered a key point in the rise of the Taliban, and Mullah Omar himself, associating him with both Ahmed Shah Durrani and the Prophet of Islam. Upon donning the cloak, the crowd began to shout "Amir al-Muminin", a title that Ayman al-Zawahiri still occasionally uses to refer to Mullah Omar in his radio addresses. Wahid Muzhda, an Afghan analyst and one-time high-ranking official in the Taliban foreign ministry, disputes Mullah Omar donning the cloak. "From what I know, from sources close to Omar, and from a chat with the keeper of the shrineOmar did not wear the cloak." Wahid Muzhdas doubts notwithstanding, in a New York Times piece from winter 2001, the current keeper of the Shrine, Qari Shawali, claimed that he not only allowed Mullah Omar to view the cloak, but that it was borrowed and removed from the Shrine in the spring of 1996 by Mullah Omar. This was the third time in his lifetime that a man attempted to look at, let alone don, the cloak.

Shrine of Ali

The Blue Mosque is a mosque located in the heart of Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. The Seljuq dynasty sultan Ahmed Sanjar built the first known shrine at this location. It was destroyed or hidden under earthen embankment during the invasion of Genghis Khan around 1220. In the 15th century here by Sultan Husayn Mirza Bayqarah was built the present Blue Mosque. It is by far the most important landmark in Mazar-i-Sharif and it is considered that the name of city originates from this shrine. A site plan of the location made in the 1910s shows that there had earlier been a smaller walled precinct in the mosque, which was razed to create parklands later, although the portals to this precinct still remain as gateways for the shrine. Tombs of varying dimensions were added for a number of Afghan political and religious leaders over the years, which has led to the development of its current irregular dimensions. These include the square domed tomb of Amir Dost Muhammad, Wazir Akbar Khan and a similar structure for Amir Sher Ali and his family. According to a local legend here has been buried Ali who reportedly was brought here by a white camel in order to save his remains from the desecration by his enemies. Most Muslims though consider that Ali is buried in Imam Ali Mosque, Najaf in Iraq.

Gardens of Babur

The Gardens of Babur, locally called Bagh-e Babur, is a historic park in Kabul, Afghanistan, and also the last resting-place of the first Mughal emperor Babur. The gardens are thought to have been developed around 1528 AD when Babur gave orders for the construction of an ‘avenue garden’ in Kabul, described in some detail in his memoirs, the Baburnama. It was the tradition of Moghul princes to develop sites for recreation and pleasure during their lifetime, and choose one of these as a last resting-place. The site continued to be of significance to Babur’s successors, and Jehangir made a pilgrimage to the site in 1607 AD when he ordered that all gardens in Kabul be surrounded by walls, that a prayer platform be laid in front of Babur’s grave, and an inscribed headstone placed at its head. During the visit of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in 1638 a marble screen was erected around the group of tombs, and a mosque built on the terrace below. There are accounts from the time of the visit to the site of Shah Jahan in 1638 of a stone water-channel that ran between an avenue of trees from the terrace below the mosque, with pools at certain intervals.

Hajigak Pass

Hajigak Pass is a pass in Bamiyan Province in central Afghanistan. It is situated in the Koh-i Baba range and is one of the two main routes from Kabul to central Afghanistan and to the sites of the Buddhist monasteries and statues in Bamiyan, part of the ancient Silk Road. The two main routes from Kabul to Bamiyan are from the south via the Hajigak Pass and from the north via the Shibar Pass. The journey via the Shibar Pass is 237 km long and takes about 6.5 hours. The Shibar Pass is preferred over the Hajigak Pass on safety grounds, because in the harsh climate of the area the Hajigak remains covered with snow for much of the year. The Hajigak route leaves Kabul from Kote Sangi, about 1 km west of Kabul University, and follows the paved highway to Ghazni west and then south into Maidan Wardak province. There the route leaves the Ghazni highway, turning right to head west through Maidan Shar, the capital of Maidan Wardak province. It continues through Jalrez, Sarchashman, Sia Sang, and Duz Qol, before crossing the Unai Pass to Gardan Diwal, where the route again turns to the right to head north, and finally start the climb to the Hajigak Pass proper. There are numerous villages in this sparsely populated, rugged area. The greenness of the trees and the clearness of the air in the valleys greet tourists who travel to Bamiyan. In the fall and spring large camel caravans add their particular color and excitement to the scene. The major wildlife is lammergeier which are often seen squatting in large groups beside the road. These very large birds are also known as Bearded Vultures for they have very noticeable, rather comical goatees. Having a passion for bone marrow, they have been seen to carry animal bones to a height and carefully drop them onto rocks to crack them so that they can feast upon the marrow with greedy delight.

Khawak Pass

The Khawak Pass (elevation 3,848 m (12,625 ft)) sits across the route heading to the northwest from near the head of the Panjshir Valley through the formidable Hindu Kush range to northern Afghanistan via Andarab and Baghlan. This is the route traditionally thought to have been followed by Alexander the Great in the spring of 329 BCE when he led his army from the Kabul Valley across the mountains to Bactria (later Tokharistan in the north). Vincent Smith states that Alexander took his troops across both the Khāwak and the Kaoshān or Kushan Pass. However, according to some scholars, there is really no proof for this. The Khāwak is most probably the pass used by the famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim monk, Xuanzang, on his return from India to China in the early 7th century. In 1333 Ibn Battuta crossed the pass on his journey to India. When dictating his account over twenty years later he remembered spreading felt cloth in front of his camels to prevent them sinking into the snow. It was also crossed by Timur (Tamerlane or Timur the Lame, 1336-1405), and by Captain John Wood on his return journey to the sources of the Oxus in the mid-19th century. It was the easternmost pass leading from the Kabul Valley into northern Afghanistan, and the most popular pass of this region. This pass, so important for the early history of Afghanistan, is now for the most part bypassed by the paved road that runs through the Salang tunnel under the Salang Pass, completed by the Soviets in 1964, at a height of about 3,400 m (11,200 ft). It links Charikar and Kabul with Kunduz, Khulm, Mazari Sharif and Termez.
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GuRoute would like to access your current location so that we can pin you on the map and show you nearby attractions

Add friends so that you can share your experiences with each other...

Add tour to What's Next?

Go...

Either for yourself or someone else...

  1. Do your trip research in GuRoute
    Add all the places that you think might be worthy of a visit into a trip-plan
  2. Add your trip-plan to your "What's Next" timeline
    (or a friend's "What's Next" timeline)
  3. When you're on vacation you'll have all your research at your fingertips
  4. Share your timline with your friends
    They can enjoy your vacation with you, seeing not only where you've been, but where you're going next...
  5. Add/remove attractions if things change

It also makes a great souvenir of your trip

Collections

Go...

Create a home page for a collection of attractions

  • Add an image and description to display on the homepage
  • Start adding content
    Add existing attractions to your collection or create new attractions of your own
  • Collections can be:
    • Public (Anyone can add attractions to your collection)
    • Shared (Only yourself and Gurus you nominate can add content)
    • Private (The collection will only be visible to yourself)

Uses

  • Local business or hotel
    Showcase local attractions that you endorse
  • Clubs
    Showcase attractions that members have created (eg. local historical society)
  • Special Interest
    If GuRoute does not have a category for your special interest you add your attractions to your own collection instead

Examples

Walking/Driving Tours

Go...

A guided tour where GuRoute will direct you from stop to stop and narrate a description of each attraction you arrive at

  • GuRoute uses your phone's GPS to guide you from stop to stop
  • GuRoute automatically detects when you arrive at the next tour-stop and narrates the description of the attraction (Chrome Only)
  • It then sends you on to the next stop

Tours are great to attract people to your town. Even places with no significant points of interest can be lots of fun when part of a tour


Cater tours to your Audience

  • Kid-friendly Tours
    • Focus on what will keep kids interested
    • Instead of parents having to drag their kids around they'll be struggling to keep up
    • Let the kids navigate and they'll get more fun out of finding that historical plaque than they ever would from reading it
  • Accessible tours
  • Short and long tours of the same location

What you need to do...

  1. Click 'Go...'
    Enter a title, description and location for the tour
  2. Add existing attractions OR create new ones and add them to the tour
  3. For existing attractions you can add more information specific to the theme of the tour
  4. You can also add instructions on what to do or see en-route to the next tour-stop
  5. Try out your tour and see how it works...

Mystery Tour

Go...

Create a Mystery Tour

Create a series of clues to show people around a city, neighborhood or whatever place you like...

  • GuRoute will show people clues to get them from attraction to attraction
  • When they reach each stop GuRoute will tell them about the place and give them the next clue
  • Take as long or as you like and explore each location at your leisure

Scavenger Hunt

Go...

Create a Scavenger Hunt

Create a series of questions that people have to answer. The answers can all be discovered by walking aroung the area, looking for clues.

  • How many beers are on tap at Michael Collin's Irish Bar?
  • What's the name of the oldest building on main streeet?
  • Show a picture of some public art and ask them what it is called
  • Clues can have numeric or multiple choice answers