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More beautiful than imagined: Band-e-Amir

By Zarina Reza and Kai Pflug

Band-e-Amir is a chain of six lakes in central Afghanistan, and the first national park in the country. Kai visited the place in November 2023 while Zarina went there a few years earlier.

Zarina:

Band-e-Amir was an incredible place for me to see. Ever since the first time I went to the small waterfall, more and more people have come to visit, take pictures, and make memories. What attracted me most at the Amir dam was that when I looked at the water, it had the color of the sky – and when I got on a boat, I could see it even more closely.

The waterfall

Zarina in a boat on the lake

While looking at the water, I said to myself, how well it had been created. God has put all this beauty together. One of the wonders that He has created is this place in Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan.

Later, when I was looking at Band-e-Amir from a high place, I was even more attracted as it looked even more pleasant and beautiful. Also, there are shops at Band-e-Amir where women sell very beautiful hand-embroidered goods made by the local people. However, since the government change in Afghanistan, the number of tourists has declined as families can no longer easily go there together.

Kai:

It is indeed a place of breathtaking beauty that reminded me a lot of the US Southwest – though practically without any tourists. As my visit was in November when it is very dry, there was almost no green visible – just the intense blue of the water and the sky, and the multi-shaded warm yellow and reddish colors of the rocks.

But Zarina is much better at describing the beauty of this place, and she also came up with the title of this post – so my contribution is better restricted to the photos …