Herat in Afghanistan pre-war

During my stay in Iran 1971 - 1976 I travelled a several times to Afghanistan and soon fell inlove with this fantastic and beautiful country. Herat always was my favorite town and I spent most of my time in Afghanistan in this idyllic place. Most of the inhabitants are Tajiks and Hazaras, both ethnic people who speak the Farsi (persian) language. It wasn't very difficult for me to get contact with people in Herat people as I had learnt Farsi during my stay in Shiraz/Iran, just the slang was a bit strange.

In the meantime Afghanistan had to suffer hard times and many things had changed or been destroyed for ever. I am lucky that I had the opportunity to see the city before the russian invasion 1978 and the following disasters in which one of the most beautiful my most liked places I have seen were destroyed. But my relationship to the people in Herat remained unbroken over all this time and I still am in contact with some of my Hazarie and Tajik friends whom I thank from my heart for the nice memories.

A lot of the friends who heard my stories and saw my slide show about Herat asked me to publish some of the pictures from Herat, to show the everyday life which will never again be like it was 30 years ago.

I send my heartfelt wishes to these great people who suffer from an ill reputation brought onto them by their fellow citizens from the south - may they one day live in freedom, peace and harmony.

Please bear in mind that these pictures are scans of old slides, and not all of them are in good condition. After this long time, some slides lost their natural colors. These pictures should give you an impression of that wonderful town.