Balkh and Mazar-i-Sharif

The next day was spent exploring the nearby town of Balkh. We visited what is said to be the oldest known mosque in Afghanistan (?C.), Masjid i No Gumbad. Amusingly enough, it's located in the middle of vast fields of cannibis, as far as the eye can see. View of the ruins:



Then made a visit to the Khwaja Parsa shrine in Balkh.

We then drove for hours searching for a particular village out in the middle of nowhere. Every twenty minutes or so we would pass through a tiny village and ask someone on the road, “Is this the village with the Zadyan minaret?” They would shake their head and point off in the distance across the desert, where you could see nothing, and so we would drive off in that direction until the next village. After what seemed like hours of 4-wheeling across the desert, we found this amazing and unusual minaret. We all climbed the spiral staircase to the top and took in the view.

Zadyan minaret brickwork

This village is so far out of the way (and difficult to get to!!) that apparently most guides discourage/refuse to take visitors as far. I am pleased that we had a guide to was willing to take us wherever we wanted to go!

Finally back in Mazar, we spent the afternoon with cultural liaisons at the city and visited one of the two remaining local ceramic tile workshops. I now know more about ceramic tile making than I ever imagined.

That night we went out to dinner at a Tajik restaurant we had heard about and had a nice meal... at least so we thought. Two out of five became violently ill that night, the two who didn't accompany their meal with the Tajik vodka. Lesson learned!

Sat morning visited Hazrat Ali shrine (“the Blue Mosque”) in Mazar and ceramic tile workshop at the shrine.

The master tile maker demonstrating their firing technique.

After that, we hit the road back to Kabul. The drive back was exhausting - three solid days in the car at well over 100 degrees every day! Still managed to make one last stop along the way... an old buddhist temple(?), the stupa near Samangan. However the Afghans dispute the origin, or so says the sign...

Below the stupa are caves, that from a distance don't look like much,

but take a look on the inside:

Toward the end of the day, not far from Kabul, we had the pleasure of being harassed by the local militiamen. There is nothing like ending along journey by having a group of young, angry, weapon-toting boys shout at you and rifle through your bags!