Zoroaster was from Balkh, and for centuries Balkh was one of the largest cities in the world; it was called "the mother of cities." In 1975 it was a village without paved streets but with an enormous expanse of ruins and a crumbling Timurid mosque.

"I will proceed with my history, telling the story as I go along of small cities no less than of great. For most of those which were great once are small today; and those which used to be small were great in my own time. Knowing, therefore, that human prosperity never abides long in the same place, I shall pay attention to both alike."

                                                     Herodotus

A32. Mosque Window

Detail from the Shrine of Khwaja Abu Nasr Parsa, Balkh, Afghanistan, January 1975, 35 mm, Pentax ES, 200 mm SMCT lens, Kodachrome II film, Dye transfer print 1985, ŠLuke Powell, 1996.

This is the last picture in The Afghan Folio.
The next set is Herat.