Touring Balkh, Afghanistan, the ancient silk road capital of Bactria, rich in Islamic history.

Today we head out of our hotel, the Burj Ghazanfar in Mazar-i-Sharif to spend the afternoon visiting the ancient city of Balkh a few hours to the Northeast. Balkh was the busy capital of the ancient silk road region of Bactria dating back to 1500 BC. Our first stop is Afghanistan's oldest mosque Noh Gumbad from the late 8th century. The mosque also served as the tomb of the famous Haji Piyada of Bactria. While at the mosque we meet a couple of local Taliban who fix my turban for me. We also learned that the founder of the first monotheistic religion in the world, Zoroastrianism who was named Zarathustra was born in Balkh between 1500-1200 BC. Balkh was sacked in 1220 by Genghis Khan and all its inhabitants massacred and most of the buildings destroyed. We next stop at the 15th century. Sufi shrine of Khwaja Abu Nar Parsa. Next we visit the 10th century tomb of Rabia Balkhi Afghanistan's first Persian poetess. In the parking lot we see an American HUMVEE armored personnel carrier that had been shot up pretty badly and left abandoned. Then further along the way we stop at the old ancient inner city wall of Balkh. Then we head on over to the first madrasa in Afghanistan which was also the childhood home of the famous 13th century Sufi poet Rumi who was from Balkh. Next we head to a fabulous barbecue lunch in Balkh at Sadaqat restaurant. After we meet up with our Taliban escort and visit the ancient outer wall of the city of Balkh. Next we drive back to Mazar-i-Sharif and stop for delicious Afghan ice cream at the famous Tashqurghan Ice Cream Shop. We walk over to the carpet bazaar we here we meet our guides brother and father and his mujahideen friends for tea and fascinating conversation about beating the Soviet Russians in the 1980's. The power goes out and I watcha the men in the bazaar praying during call to prayer. We head back to our hotel the Burj Ghazanfar in Mazar-i-Sharif where we freshen up before heading back out to dinner at the fancy Rayhan restaurant and indulge in a huge delicious burger with pomegranate juice. We also enjoy the national desert of Afghanistan, Firni custard. After dinner we take a really fun tuk tuk ride back to the hotel.