Ancient Afghanistan

The famous minarets—ancient prayer towers that wobble about five stories up into the sky. They are crumbling, but still have bits of the original bright blue lapis tiles on the sides. The Fifth Minaret – all 55 meters of it – from 12 century -seems ready to collapse into a dusty heap of bricks and colored tiles at any moment.  Herat in the past was the first city for the very highest expression of architecture, from all the other expressions of Islamic art, like calligraphy, mosaics, and poetry. It’s been described as the Florence of Afghanistan.

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