The Road to Mazar

I just got back from a three day drive up to Mazar-i-Sharif to investigate the ceramics and tile industry there. Twelve hours (mas o menos) by car including a few cultural stops along the way.

The drive itself was fantastic, made only better by my traveling companions, the best one could imagine for such a trip: an archaeologist in early islamic art who specializes in ceramics and tile making, an art historian who specializes in early midevil islamic art and architecture, and a gentleman who used to work for the ministry of culture and who has been living here for about 6 years, so knows the country very well.

We drove north from Kabul on the road to the Salang Tunnel, passed wreckages, in fact full fields, of Soviet-era tanks and military vehicles. Strewn along the river that runs through the mountains, villages of clay and stone houses are interspersed with large splashes of white paint, indicating that land mines have been cleared from the area.

We then crossed the Hindu Kush over the Salang Pass through a tunnel 6km long, apparently the highest elevation tunnel in the world. There are a couple of morbid wartime stories that go along with the tunnel which I will spare you... The mountain pass was gorgeous, and the cooler weather welcome, if all too brief!


The first of our stops along the way was to see an ancient hill side rock carving just north of the mountain pass. To get to it, we had to cross a river and climb the hill. Easy enough, right? A local guy seemed to think so... he led us across the first of two forks in the river, but the second seemed like it might be a bit too swift and deep, so Robert, who is 6ft, made a test run for us but barely made it across! Probably a good thing... three women emerging soaking wet from a river with clothes clinging to their bodies could likely cause a riot. Anyhow, we decided to take another route. Just up river you can make the 2 minute trip across the river in a boat. The set-up is ingenious. The current from the river pushes the boat's spinning axle against the cable strung across the river so you can just roll the boat across.


Finally on the other side, a short hike up the hill brought us to the sculpture, called Rag-i Bibi, which my companions say is 3rd-4th C.


View from the top:


After a few more hours in the car, we came to an old town called Tashkurgan. Apparently it had a beautiful and much admired covered bazar which was completely destroyed by carpet bombing by the Russians. I understand that an organization here is proposing to rebuild the original bazar. Unfortunately I couldn't take any good photos of the town as the market was in full swing, but here are some of the ruins.

As we were poking around the ruins of an old madrasa, we attracted a crowd and discovered that in fact it is currently in use. A few of the students invited us in to have a look around. The place was really in poor condition, but had 80 students living and studying there. The teacher invited us for a chat and showed us all of his text books, of which I would say none were newer than 30 years.


We finally arrived in Mazar around 8 or 9. Stayed at the UN guest house, where, of course, our guide / driver was not allowed in because he is Afghan.

Thanks to Alison for the photos!