Come Visit Afghanistan

Afghans using a paddle-boat on Band-i-Amir lake outside the central Afghan province of Bamiyan during a local annual festival aimed at promoting tourism in the central highlands, yesterday. Bamiyan, some 200 kilometres northwest of Kabul, stands in a deep green and lush valley stretching 100 kilometres through central Afghanistan, on the former Silk Road that once linked China with Central Asia and beyond. The town was home to two nearly-2,000-year-old Buddha statues before they were destroyed by the Taliban, months before their regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001.