The places in between
By: Rory Stewart.
Publisher: Picador
Published: 2004
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 324
Subjects: Stewart, Rory -- Travel -- Afghanistan; War on Terrorism, 2001- -- Social aspects -- Afghanistan; Afghanistan -- Description and travel
Description: "In January 2002, shortly after the US invasion, Rory Stewart walked from Herat across Afghanistan to Kabul via the mountains of Ghor, a route taken five centuries before by the first Mughal Emperor of India, Babur the Great. This was to be the last and most difficult section of a twenty-one-month journey through Asia on foot, a journey undertaken to explore, in remote areas, far from roads, the places that modern societies ignore - the places in between." "Afghanistan was still in turmoil, caught between hostile nations, warring factions and competing ideologies. The paths were laid with mines, villages were abandoned and the snow in the high mountains of Ghor and Bamiyan was three metres deep. Moving slowly through an interior closed to the world by twenty-four years of war, the author found Russian explosives and the delicate porcelain of medieval civilizations, explored the architecture and mysticism of forgotten mountain dynasties, witnessed the effect of US bombs and acquired an unexpected companion. The hostile winter terrain almost defeated him. At night, he slept on villagers' floors, sharing their bread, speaking to them in Persian and learning from their tough, isolated and courageous lives."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Illustrations on lining-papers.