Despite bearing witness to ancient and more recent battles the scarred landscape of Afghanistan is strewn with the monuments to illustrate this rich history: from the recently uncovered Bronze Age Oxus civilization at Dashli in the northern plains, the remains of the Greek civilization of Ai Khanum in the north-east and the spectacular twelfth-century minarets at Jam in the mountains of the west to the magnificent palatial complexes of the eleventh-century Sultans at Lashkar Bazar in the south and what remains of the fifth and seventh-century Buddhist world of Bamiyan in the Hindu Kush (notoriously destroyed by the Taliban in 2001). This book, therefore, fills the need for a general, accessible background to the history and cultural heritage of Afghanistan. It provides broad summaries of the history, architecture and archaeology, together with a gazetteer of the main monuments and archaeological sites. As well as maps and site plans it includes photographs of main monuments.