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Sure, there is the occasional suicide bomb attack, but Kabul has long been synonymous with risk. And though Afghanistan's bustling capital still molders under the detritus of nearly 30 years of war, its historic attractions are now easier to enjoy, thanks to a plucky new travel company called Great Game, greatgametravel.com. Its mission is to give visitors a taste of the people and culture that made this city a vital crossroads of Asia and Europe for more than 5,000 years. "Even the foreigners who have lived here for years have no idea what Kabul is," says Jamshid Rahimi, a Great Game guide. "They get picked up from their guesthouse, taken to work in an office, they eat in the foreign restaurants and they go home again. Our city has so much more to offer than that."
Finding beauty amid the bomb craters takes a little work. But with the help of native guides such as Rahimi, Great Game founders Jonathan Bean and Andre Mann, who fell in love with the region as backpackers in the late 1990s, have developed a daylong itinerary that encompasses the city's 5th century foundations, its role as a Silk Road caravansary, its 16th century revival under the great Mughal Emperor Babur and its recent troubles. Encircled by the snowcapped Hindu Kush, Kabul is a small city, with its history compressed. As a result, Buddhist stupas are hidden in Muslim graveyards, and elaborate Afghan façades can be glimpsed between Soviet-style apartment blocks.
The tour starts at the hilltop mausoleum of the father of former Afghan King Zahir Shah. Kabul's neighborhoods, both modern and ancient, unfurl in all directions, and Rahimi points at landmarks to illustrate his narrative. Gesturing to the majestic ruins of the 5th century Bala Hissar citadel and the crumbling city wall, he describes the successive waves of invaders that sought to make Kabul their own. Shafiqullah Zarif, Great Game's chief security officer, who also doubles as a guide, picks up the tale with the Soviet invasion and the subsequent civil war. As the local Red Cross security chief for more than 18 years, Zarif is uniquely qualified to tell the city's more recent history, indicating the former positions of rival warlords who brought the city to its knees during the devastating 1992 to 1996 conflict.
From there, the tour plunges straight into the heart of the old city, where the centuries-old Shor bazaar has changed little from the days when it was thronged with Silk Road traders. In the narrow, twisting alleyways of the bird market, drab mud-brick shops burst with the vibrant plumage of parakeets and fighting quails, while the air is filled with the bright chatter of songbirds, the favored pets of Kabul residents. Handcrafted bamboo and wire cages, festooned with glass beads, dangle from every doorway, and the fragrance of cardamom-laced green tea beckons passersby into tiny chai shops. As bird enthusiasts compare notes on how best to train a pigeon to turn on command, it's easy to forget that Kabul is only just emerging from the depredations of a brutal regime that banned bird fighting, music, even kite flying.
In the afternoon, the tour takes in the mausoleum of 18th century ruler Timur Shah, as well as the Shah-do-Shamshira Mosque. En route to the tour's last stop—the renovated gardens and tomb of Babur, who asked that his remains be buried in his favorite city—Rahimi points out the stadium where the Taliban beheaded murderers and stoned adulterers. Violent, summary justice is what many people would think of when it comes to this city. But these days, Rahimi says, the stadium is used for sports once more, and is where the country's 2008 Olympic athletes are being trained. There is hope amid the hardship in Kabul.
- Aryn Baker/Kabul