By Kai Pflug
Photographers these days frequently create something which they pretentiously call a “Photo Essay”. This is not what this blog post is – it is just a collection of snapshots taken with a mobile phone while (mostly) walking around in Kabul in November 2023.
Kabul is a city surrounded by hills, and has gradually expanded into them.
While this looks quite picturesque (I can imagine Paul Klee would have loved to paint it) …
… it is not very convenient for some of the inhabitants of the hillside houses, as not all have access to piped water.
Would you like to carry water up here?
Below, you can see part of a historic city wall running up the hill.
Some such defensive positions are a bit more impressive, for example, this one on Amir Habibullah Kalakani Hill.
Nearby, an entire street is dedicated to the production of large clay pots.
Some of the balconies in this street look a bit scary.
When I took photos of Laughing Doves in that area, one local resident proudly showed me his birds and asked me to take photos of them.
There are some other animals in the downtown area as well.
Their advantage is that they rarely need repairs.
In the Kabul Zoo, there is a bronze statue of the lion Marjan who once lived there and was very popular with Kabul residents. His story is almost as tragic as parts of Afghanistan’s history – he was born in Germany, given as a gift to the zoo, then killed a soldier who went into his cage to show off his manliness (no woman would ever think of doing something this stupid), then had a hand grenade thrown at him by the brother of the killed soldier (apparently seeking revenge for his brother’s stupidity). That left Marjan blind, handicapped and without teeth, though with subsequent good care he still lived for 7 years (which is about 7 years longer than the man who threw the hand grenade – he was injured and killed within about a week of the attack on the lion, and I cannot say that this bothers me in any way).
After the attack, Marjan could not eat boned meat any longer, which excluded some of the items available in the Kabul markets for him.
Open markets make up large parts of Kabuls downtown area. As Afghans seem to like eating as much as the Chinese I usually live with, large parts of the market areas are dedicated to food.
Some of it looks very attractive even to a non-foodie like me.
The result of all these ingredients – with lots of effort added – may be a family meal like this one.
This is very tasty (Afghan food is surprisingly tasty, much better than Chinese food, in my opinion). But if you do not like it, you can go to Barak’s Burger instead.
Of course, the markets also sell lots of other things. The exact use of some of these things sometimes escapes me.
And yes, the market (or really, the bazaar) is very busy.
The Kabul river runs right through the center of the city, but it is not a great sight at this time of the year.
As for the buildings, attractive-looking mosques …
… palaces such as the Darul Aman Palace …
… towers such as the historic Shahrara Tower …
… and impressively decorated walls …
… compete with garish-looking Wedding Halls.
But if it all gets too much, you can go to Quarga Lake Park and look at the water and the mountains behind it.
Originally posted 2024-03-16 17:28:15.
