02 — Provinces

Thirteen provinces, and what each one builds with.

Afghanistan has thirty-four. These are the thirteen we currently list in — the rest are coming as we find people on the ground worth working with.

Kabul

کابل

Central highlands

5 listings

The capital, in a bowl of mountains at eighteen hundred metres.

Herat

هرات

Western plains

3 listings

Timurid tilework, wind, and the most ornamented brick in the country.

Balkh

بلخ

Northern steppe

2 listings

Mazar-i-Sharif and the oldest continuously farmed plain in Central Asia.

Kandahar

قندهار

Southern plateau

2 listings

Orchard country: pomegranate, grape, and walled ground.

Nangarhar

ننگرهار

Eastern valley

2 listings

Jalalabad, citrus groves, and winters that never really arrive.

Bamyan

بامیان

Central highlands

1 listing

A high valley of red cliffs, cut terraces and very long light.

Kunduz

کندز

Northern plains

1 listing

River plain, cotton, and the flattest horizon in Afghanistan.

Ghazni

غزنی

Central plateau

1 listing

A walled city on the Kabul–Kandahar road, at two thousand metres.

Badakhshan

بدخشان

Northeastern mountains

2 listings

Lapis, high passes, and valleys that close for the winter.

Khost

خوست

Southeastern hills

1 listing

Pine ridges, a wide bowl, and a strong tradition of the family compound.

Helmand

هلمند

Southwestern desert

1 listing

The country's longest river, and the ground it made.

Panjshir

پنجشیر

Northeastern valley

2 listings

One valley, one river, and almost no flat ground.

Farah

فراه

Western desert

1 listing

Dry, wide and quiet, on the old road to Iran.