Francesco

We go to Bamyan for a weekend of getting to know the ancient Buddhist center in the mountains of Central Afghanistan. There we visit the place were the two gigantic statues of Buddha stood, inside a space carved inside a mountain cliff. Also the old fortress high on a hill, already nearly destroyed, called Share Gurgula, or the Castle of Noise, for the cries of the people killed at the place when Genghis Khan conquered the town, after losing his grandson in the battle.

We visit also the Band-i-Amir lakes, at more than 3,000 meters of altitude, they seem to spring for inside the earth, a miracle of water in the deserted place. At night we stay at the UN Habitat residence, two houses connected as one, in a village with no more than 10 houses in all, all beautifully traditional afghan, with a saman to add. For a small fee we are given the whole second level of a house, also breakfast and dinner. It’s already October and terribly cold at night, so the staff would then put some wood in the stoves, which is soon consumed, and we shiver most of the night under mountains of heavy blankets.