Cities of Afghanistan: Ball

The main city of the ancient kingdom was the old beam, or Balx, How to call it today.

One of the oldest cities of the planet, mentioned in the Vedas and Avesta as Bahdi, he was the birthplace of Zoroistra (Zarathustra) and his possible place of burial, the capital of the Bactrian Empire and the Kushan kingdom. In VII B. N. NS. The city was destroyed by Arabs, by 725 he was restored, then the troops of Genghis Khan (1220-1221.), but in the era of samanids and thimurides, it becomes an important center for trade and political life of the region.

Nowadays, the unique historical core of the old city, surrounded by nine-meter walls with a total length of about 11 km (the tower of the southern circuit is preserved in quite a decent state), is considered one of the most interesting objects of the country.

Here you can see the ruins of the ancient city of Bala Hissar, lying in the Central Park and lined with tiles of the Mausoleum of the Cologovo Khoja Abu-Nasr-Parsa (XV-XVI centuries.) with a nearby grave of Rabiy Balkhi (famous Persian poetess) and Said-Subchan-Kuli-Khan Madrasa, from which only arched gate (XVII in.); The earliest Islamic monument in Afghanistan is a beautiful Masdzhidi-No-Humbad Mosque, or Masjidi-Haji-Piyada (IX in.); The hill of the Topi Rustam, under which the Buddhist Pagoda rests (III in. to N. NS.), the hill of Tahti-Rustam – the location of the once of a huge Buddhist monastery (in VI in. N. NS. There were more than one hundred of these religious structures here) and the intended place of the birth of Zoroastrianism.

Halfway between the Balch and Mazar-Sharif are the ruins of the shrines and the Tahti Pool Mosque.