Back before the Soviet invaders, the warring Islamic factions, the Taliban zealots and the terror camps of Osama bin Laden, Afghanistan was known as a backpacker's dream -- a land of spectacular mountains and breathtaking scenery.
In those days, the poor Central Asian nation had more than its share of long-haired Western youths who came seeking its stark beauty -- and searching for the world's cheapest high-grade hashish, sold openly on the rutted, unpaved alleys of Kabul's market district.
For centuries, Afghanistan was isolated by wastelands in the west with names like "the Desert of Death" and by the spectacular Hindu Kush, the mountain range that marches into Afghanistan's northeast and runs like a spine down its center.
Its people live in settlements of tightly clustered mud huts or in dusty cities like Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kandahar -- patchworks of open-air shops, low concrete buildings and domed mosques whose graceful minarets dominate the skyline.
Life in the cities is lived not in homes or offices but in the streets, bustling with vendors, shoppers and men in long tunics, baggy pants and turbans who pass the time strolling, drinking tea and chatting with friends.
The sounds of the streets are a mixture of voices, blaring horns and -- five times a day -- the cry of the Muslim prayer call that echoes from the minarets in every city and town. The ruling Taliban, who enforce a harsh brand of Islamic law, have banned music.
With a population of 21 million, Afghanistan's soul is in its rural areas -- the shimmering gold sand dunes of the desert southwest, the glacial peaks of the Hindu Kush and the snowcapped Pamir Mountains of the craggy corridor that juts like a finger to the Chinese border in the northeast.
Nomadic tribes use thousands of footpaths weaving through the mountains to migrate from their cool heights in summer to warmer plains in winter. They share them with smugglers who move contraband cargo -- often drugs, sometimes weapons and occasionally people -- around the country and across its borders.
Railroads never made it to Afghanistan, with one line stopping at the foot of the Khyber Pass in neighboring Pakistan. The only major highway runs like a circle linking Afghanistan's major cities, from Mazar-e-Sharif in the north, to the capital, Kabul, to Kandahar in the south to Herat in the west.
The ring road was partly built by the former Soviet Union, which invaded in 1979, and partly by the US, which backed Islamic fighters who drove the Soviets out a decade later and is now bombarding Afghanistan in an effort to root out bin Laden or force the Taliban to surrender him.
Kabul, a sprawling city of about 1 million people, sits on a high, dry plateau surrounded by treeless hills dusted with snow in the winter.
Pakistanis recall that before the Soviet invasion, Kabul was a popular weekend getaway destination, with cinemas showing the latest Indian films and a hotel that offered alcohol and dancing.
In the posh Wasir Akbar Khan neighborhood, homes with large verandahs stand along the tree-lined streets. In the city center, two or three office buildings tower over the bustling market.
Sun-baked mud homes cling to the stark brown hillsides of Kabul. Along the top of one hill, a wall built more than 1,200 years ago still stands, a tribute to the workmanship of the time.
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