Top tourist attractions in Afghanistan
Here is a list of top tourist attractions in Afghanistan. Only the topmost tourist destinations are presented here. To see other destinations, please check the images from Afghanistan section.
Curious if any of these place from Afghanistan made it our best tourist attractions in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.
You can also view all tourist attractions in Afghanistan and other countries on our tourist attractions map.
Khyber Pass
Mountain pass
The Khyber Pass is a mountain pass connecting Afghanistan and Pakistan, cutting through the northeastern part of the Spin Ghar mountains. An integral part of the ancient Silk Road, it is one of the oldest known passes in the world. Throughout history it has been an important trade route between Central Asia and South Asia and a strategic military location. The summit of the pass is 5 kilometres inside Pakistan at Landi Kotal.
Tora Bora
Tourist attraction
Tora bora, known locally as Spīn Ghar, is a cave complex situated in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, in the Pachir Wa Agam District of Nangarhar province, approximately 50 km west of the Khyber Pass and 10 km north of the border of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan. Tora Bora was known to be an important area for the Taliban and insurgency against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Tora Bora and the surrounding White Mountain range had natural caverns formed by streams eating into the limestone. During the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan it was one of the strongholds of the Taliban and its Al-Qaeda allies. As the suspected hideout of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, it was the location of the December 2001 Battle of Tora Bora. Tora Bora was variously described by the western media to be an "impregnable cave fortress" housing 2,000 men complete with a hospital, a hydroelectric power plant, offices, a hotel, arms and ammunition stores, roads large enough to drive a tank into, and elaborate tunnel, and ventilation systems. Both the British and American press published elaborate plans of the base which was readily accepted by the public. When presented with such plans in an NBC interview, the United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said "This is serious business, there's not one of those, there are many of those".
Minaret of Jam
Tourist attraction
The Minaret of Jam is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in western Afghanistan. It is located in the Shahrak District, Ghor Province, by the Hari River. The 62-metre high minaret, surrounded by mountains that reach up to 2400m, was built in the 1190s, entirely of baked-bricks. It is famous for its intricate brick, stucco and glazed tile decoration, which consists of alternating bands of kufic and naskhi calligraphy, geometric patterns, and verses from the Qur'an.
Gardens of Babur
Tourist attraction
The Gardens of Babur, locally called Bagh-e Babur, is a historic park in Kabul, Afghanistan, and also the last resting-place of the first Mughal emperor Babur. The gardens are thought to have been developed around 1528 AD when Babur gave orders for the construction of an ‘avenue garden’ in Kabul, described in some detail in his memoirs, the Baburnama. It was the tradition of Moghul princes to develop sites for recreation and pleasure during their lifetime, and choose one of these as a last resting-place. The site continued to be of significance to Babur’s successors, and Jehangir made a pilgrimage to the site in 1607 AD when he ordered that all gardens in Kabul be surrounded by walls, that a prayer platform be laid in front of Babur’s grave, and an inscribed headstone placed at its head. During the visit of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in 1638 a marble screen was erected around the group of tombs, and a mosque built on the terrace below. There are accounts from the time of the visit to the site of Shah Jahan in 1638 of a stone water-channel that ran between an avenue of trees from the terrace below the mosque, with pools at certain intervals.
Kabul Zoo
Zoo
The Kabul Zoo is located in Kabul, Afghanistan, on the bank of the Kabul River. The director of Kabul Zoo is Aziz Gul Saqeb.
Jama Masjid of Herat
Islamic Structure
The Jama Masjid of Herat, also known as the Masjid-i Jami' of Herat, and the Great Mosque of Herat is a mosque in the city of Herat, in the Herat Province of north-western Afghanistan. It was built by Ghurids, the famous Sultan Ghayas-ud-Din Ghori, who laid its foundation in 1200 AD, and later extended by several rulers as Herat changed rulers down the centuries from the Timurids, to the Safavids, to the Mughals and the Uzbeks, all of whom supported the mosque. Though many of the glazed tiles have been replaced during subsequent periods, the Great Mosque in Herat was given its present form during the closing years of the fifteenth century. Apart from numerous small neighborhood mosques for daily prayer, most communities in the Islamic world have a larger mosque, a congregational mosque for Friday services with a sermon. The Jama Masjid was not always the largest mosque in Herat; a much larger complex the Mosque and Madressa of Gawharshad, also built by the Timurids, was located in the northern part of the city. However, those architectural monuments were dynamited by officers of the British Indian Army in 1885, to prevent its use as a fortress if a Russian army tried to invade India.