Herat

Overview

Herat is the second big city of Afghanistan. It is close to the Iranian border and there used to be a lot of cross border traffic. In the 70-s it was the place to enter Afghanistan for the hippies going to India.

Enormous defensive walls and earthworks remain from ancient times. The Friday Mosque goes back to the 10th century. Nearby at Gazergah is a 1 000-year-old monastery and mausoleum. Herat is 645 km west of Kabul and apparently has the first women only university in the world.

Nowadays Herat is the industrial pole of Afghansitan and probably its safest city.

History