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Matt Reichel

Worshippers walk around the 15th-century Hazrat Ali Mazar ”Blue” Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif, just after Friday Maghrib (sunset) prayers.

Afghan visitors climb up the third-century Takht-e Rostam stupa, located outside the rural town of Haibak in Samangan province, in northern Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s first national park, Band-e-Amir, comprises turquoise blue lakes nestled in the Hindu Kush mountains. It is a popular tourist location for locals, who enjoy walking along the shores, dining at barbecue stands, and hiking around the lakes.

Mud brick homes line the golden hills around Bamyan city, which was designed to blend in with the natural color of the landscape.

In this 2019 photo, an Afghan family looks out onto Kabul, Afghanistan‘s capital, from a viewpoint on Bibi Mahru hill.

Two Hazara shepherds tend to their flock around Mirsha Khuja Mountain in rural Bamyan. Ramazan would often lead tours that would include meeting locals going about their daily lives.

Guide Noor Ramazan wraps himself in a scarf and patu, an Afghan blanket, to protect himself from the cold winter winds of the mountainous Bamyan province.

Afghanistan‘s Band-e-Amir National Park is one of the places that Afghan tour guides promoted in peacetime. After the Taliban’s recent government takeover, many travel operators joined hundreds of thousands of Afghans who fled the country in fear for their safety.