The Great Mosque of Herat, founded in 1200, is often called the Blue Mosque, because of its blue tiles. Herat, in western Afghanistan, is a cultural center of the country. (Mike Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

Maj. Richard Ojeda, one of a handful of U.S. troops working in Bamyan province, stands before a cavity that once held a massive, ancient statue of Buddha on Aug. 5, 2011. Though the statue, and another like it, were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, foreign tourists do occasionally trickle in to visit the site. Coalition and provincial officials hope the site -- and Bamyan's reputation as a peaceful oasis in Afghanistan's violent landscape -- will one day lure tourists to the province.  (Neal Shea/Stars and Stripes)

Tourists for a day, U.S. and New Zealand soldiers inspect a Soviet gun mount set atop the ruins of an ancient citadel above the road linking Bamyan to Kabul on Aug. 6, 2011. The strategic spot, called Zohak, was used for centuries to control movement along east-west trade routes linked to the Silk Road. Provincial and coalition officials hope to attract foreign visitors to the citadel and other nearby historic sites. (Neal Shea/Stars and Stripes)

A Soviet tank in Herat, which was a key battleground in Afghanistan's successful guerilla war against the Red Army, which lasted 10 years, from 1979 to 1989. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

A Soviet tank adorns a busy traffic circle in Herat, Afghanistan, as a tribute to the Mujehideen, the guerilla fighters who pushed the Soviet Red Army out of Afghanistan after a bloody 10-year war. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

Qala e Ikhtiareddin, a  restored 14th-century citadel perched atop a manmade hill in the center of Herat, a large city in far western Afghanistan. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

Rust red mesas tower over the main boat launch at Afghanistan's only national park, Band-i Amir, in Bamiyan province.
(Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

One of the famed lakes of Band-i Amir, Afghanistan's only national park. The park, located in the mountains of Bamiyan province, attracts between 7,000 to 8,000 visitors on weekend days in the summer, according to park officials. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

The empty shell of the largest of the Bamiyan Buddhas towers over the city of Bamiyan, high in the Hindu Kush Mountains of north-central Afghanistan. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

A tower in Shari Ghulgullah, the City of Screams, an ancient city in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, whose residents were slaughtered by Ghengis Khan's Mongol hordes. Shari-Ghulgullah is one of several historic sites around Bamiyan that local officials are trying to preserve. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)

Young men walk the grounds of Darulaman Palace in west Kabul. (Heath Druzin/Stars and Stripes)