Travels in Afghanistan

I was happy not be in the country, when this happened. Just a small earthquake, but so near to Kabul, that the housewalls cawed and shivered

COMPANY is going to extreme lengths to make sure the correct gravel pack material is obtained for the wells in CITY. Armin, Senior Hydrogeologist, and Fahim, Hydrogeologist Technician, traveled by plane to Mazar-e-Sharif on Tuesday via PRT Air to provide guidance on how to properly sieve and sort the gravel pack from the raw material. James, SECURITY COMPANY Deputy Project Manager, accompanied them to provide security coverage. Inspecting the gravel at the site was determined to be the best way to ensure WODRO meets COMPANY’s specifications. It is imperative that we get the correct gravel pack material to minimize the number of wells we need and to maximize the flow with the lowest drawdown. The gravel mined in Mazar-e-Sharif was determined to be the only suitable material in country, based on grain size curves analyzed for each well. Approximately 50m3 are needed to construct all the wells in CITY. Armin and James returned to Kabul on the UNHAS flight Thursday afternoon. Fahim will remain in Mazar-e-Sharif for as long as it takes to get the proper material delivered.

Due to weather conditions (snow and ice on the Salang-Pass) the only way to arrive Mazar was travelling by plane (via Herat). The two guys attaching the tow bar to the prop airliner on the picture below are not snowboarder, but the pilots. Beside me James E. providing security 24/7 

Reaching Mazar, first thing to do was searching for the gravel pit. As typically you will never get a detailed description of any location in Afghanistan (never think of getting an address, as there are no street names) we headed to Balkh on a rodeo-trip using dirt roads (if ever any road deserved that name, these did)...

BALKH, today a growing town in Balkh Province, is a town of prodigious antiquity where Zoroaster preached sometime between 1000 and 600 B.C. Licentious rites celebrated at the shrine to Anahita, Goddess of the Oxus, attracted thousands during the 5th century B.C.; Alexander the Great chose it for his base from 329–327 B.C., and in the early centuries A.D., under the Kushans, when Buddhism was practiced throughout Afghanistan, many holy Buddhist temples flourished in Balkh. For several hundreds of years scores of Buddhist pilgrims flocked to worship at the feet of “a figure of Buddha, lustrous with noted gems” as it was described by Hsuan-tsang, the Chinese pilgrim-traveller-chronicler who passed through in the 7th century A.D., just before the arrival of a new religion from the west, Islam.

The Arabs, the bearers of Islam, called Balkh the Mother of Towns, so impressed were they with its importance and its magnificence. By the 9th century two score Friday Mosques stood within the city which was paramount among the cities ruled by the Samanid Dynasty (873–999) from their capital at Bokhara. During this period of cultural revitalization Balkh was the home of some of the more famous names in early Persian literature, including the beautiful star-crossed Rabi’a Balkhi, first woman of the Islamic period to compose poems in Persian.

Embellished by the Ghaznavids and the Seljuks, who claimed it in 1040, Balkh continued as an intellectual and spiritual mecca. Mawlana Jalaluddin Balkhi, known in the west as Rumi, was born in Balkh in 1207, son of a renowned Sufi teacher. Perhaps the most eminent Sufi poet of all time, Jalaluddin Balkhi’s Mathnawi is considered by many to be the greatest poem ever written in the Persian language.

Balkh’s glorious history closed in 1220 when 10,000 mounted men following Genghis Khan rode through and left it utterly devastated. The Great Khan’s grandson stopped by for a little lion hunting in 1256, but Hulagu pitched his tents of gold cloth secured by solid gold pegs on the plain, for the desolation was so complete that even one hundred years later (1333) Ibn Battuta found the entire area “in ruins.”

Balkh did, nevertheless, lie on an important trade route and eventually it won recovery under the enlightened rule of Shah Rukh and his Queen, Gawhar Shad, of Herat. After their deaths Bokhara and Kabul fought for control of the north. Ahmad Shah Durrani (1747–1772) finally established the frontier on the Amu Darya in 1768 and Balkh became the seat of successive Governors-General of Afghan Turkestan trying valiantly to impose their rule on independent-minded Uzbak chieftains. Chronically rampant malaria and distressingly frequent outbreaks of cholera made their task difficult. In the end, Balkh was abandoned for Mazar-i-Sharif in 1866, after which it languished, a mean and forgotten village, until modernization schemes launched in the 1930s and 1940s ushered in a new era of prosperity.

SHRINE OF KHWAJA ABU NASR PARSA IN BALKH

Situated in the center of Balkh’s Central Park, this shrine was built in memory of a distinguished theologian who taught at the college in Herat established by Firuza Begam, mother of Sultan Husain Baiqara. The Timurid ladies of Herat vied with the men in their patronage of the arts and learning. Khwaja Parsa later settled in Balkh and died here in 1460. Built in the late Timurid style, its blue dome, fluted and resting on stalactite corbels 25 m; 80 ft. above the ground, sits above a colorfully tiled octagonal base. The portal is flanked by magnificent corkscrew pillars (from: Nancy Hatch Dupree: An Historical Guide To Afghanistan):

After questioning locals and several phone calls we found the gravel pit not in Balkh, but in Mazar... 

Far away from any river, people are digging for gravel with pick and shovel creating a huge crater!

Some methods of transportation seem advanced, other rather biblical. At last we found our gravel experts, screening COMPANY's specified gravel pack material 

James E. inspecting a Russian machine-gun belonging to private citizen 

SHRINE OF HAZRAT ALI (BLUE MOSQUE)

Hazrat Ali was assassinated in 661 A.D. and buried at Kufa, Iraq, not far from Baghdad. Local tradition, however, relates that his followers, fearing his enemies would take revenge upon the body, placed the remains of the Caliph on the back of a white she-camel which wandered until she fell, exhausted, on this spot, where the body was buried.

All knowledge of the final resting place was lost until the beginning of the 12th century when its existence was revealed to a mullah in a dream. The great Seljuk Sultan, Sanjar, ordered a shrine built here in 1136.

Genghis Khan destroyed this building, having heard there was great treasure beneath its pillars, and again the grave lay unmarked until a second revelation occurred during the reign of the Timurid Sultan Husain Baiqara. He also ordered an elaborate shrine constructed, in 1481. None of the 15th century decoration remains but modern restoration has returned the building to its original shimmering beauty and it stands today as the most beautiful building in Afghanistan. Not the least of its charm are thousands of white pigeons who make their home here. Local belief has it that should a gray pigeon join the flock, it will become totally white in just 40 days, so holy is the site.

Three great entranceways, the most elaborate being the main gate on the south, lead into a spacious courtyard where thousands gather to pray, especially during the Nawroz festivities. On the west there is a beautifully decorated mosque of modern construction. The exquisite Afghan carpets here were especially woven for this mosque.

The tomb of Hazrat Ali lies within the inner chamber of the central shrine, covered with a richly embroidered cloth. The walls and ceiling of this room are profusely decorated, the artistry of Aslam Khan Kabuli and Adam Khan Ghaznavi who completed the work during the reign of Amir Sher Ali (1863–1879).

Amir Sher Ali is buried outside the west door to the shrine. Just south of his tomb, there is a small chapel containing the tombs of several other members of Amir Dost Mohammad’s family. The largest tomb in this group is that of another of the Amir’s illustrious sons, Mohammad Akbar Khan who was buried here at his own request in 1843. This was the son who played such a prominent role during the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1838–1842 (from: Nancy Hatch Dupree: An Historical Guide To Afghanistan):

As in CITY and CITY COMPANY is constructing improved urban water supplies in the ancient city of CITY. CITY has once been the capital of an empire from northern Persia to northern India

The Minaret of Bahram Shah with intricate decoration in raised brick some 900 years old

MAP SHOWING WELL AND RESERVOIR SITES REMOVED 13.02.06

Our task is finding potential suitable water supplies, install and test production wells, install water lines and reservoirs for the transmission system

Geotechnical investigation in the vicinity of the power generating and chlorination building site

John indicating the location of one of the production wells

Keith and John on site visit

Frozen river

Moving to the next location

Reservoir site on elevated location

Access to safe water is limited and having no piped water can result in hard work

Design Engineer Keith inspecting the construction progress

Old Fortress just beside the reservoir tank location

Local Housing

On the way back to Kabul (2 hour ride) escorted by two vehicles

...amazing geologic structures

Snow and ice on Kabul's roads causes problems for all vehicles 

In front the good watched COMPANY Guesthouse in CITY 

Design engineer Keith in front of the armoured vehicle

The windscreen in the slightly modified Nissan Patrol has a plug to slap out to allow the guard on the front-seat to react in case of an incident

Old Fortress in CITY

View from the Old Fortress to the town

Dog meets camel

Hit the road after completing geotechnical investigations on the reservoir site

Ian on the Salang-Pass. Ian is person in charge for the hydogeological department of the PROJECT. Ian pulls the strings from COMPANY-office in the states

John, the Lead Hydrogeologist on the spot. Asked to help out for 3 weeks, John is now almost 1 year in country...

A Canadian and a German discussing with a Pakistan driller in Aybak (North Afghanistan) 

John and Hamidullah. Hamidullah is our drilling supervisor in CITY

Hydrogeologist Nasser is originally from Palestine

Haroon and me in CITY. Haroon is our Hydro in CITY...

...same as Asil

And finally Fahim does the laboratory investigations

Dog or Lion?

Der Wetterbericht einmal anders...

First snow in Kabul this winter

Nasser and John checking tne snow 

Snow behind our residence on Tapa-i-Bibi Mah Ru

Percussion drilling in CITY. Using cable tool method and tripod depths of more than hundred meters can be reached

The drillers are Pakistani. Part of their site facilities is a self-made mud stove

COMPANY Hydrogeologist Nasser

During pumping test...

...the kids have their fun

... same as we do

Schoolchildren on their way home

Russian rotary drilling rig is used for mixing the grout only  ;-)

08. Oktober 2005, 18:00 Uhr UTC

Starkes Erdbeben erschüttert Südasien

   Eines der schwersten Erdbeben der vergangenen Jahrzehnte hat in
   Pakistan, Indien und Afghanistan zu großen Zerstörungen geführt.
   Eine noch ungeklärte Zahl von Menschen viel der Katastrophe zum Opfer.

   Der Artikel bei DW-WORLD:
   http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1734445,00.html

   --------------------------------------------------------------------
  
   Mehr als tausend Tote durch Erdbeben in Pakistan

   ISLAMABAD/NEU DELHI: Bei einem der schwersten Erdbeben der
   vergangenen Jahrzehnte in Südasien sind weit mehr als 1000 Menschen
   ums Leben gekommen. Alleine im Norden Pakistans rechnen die Behörden
   mit etwa 1000 Toten. Aus den benachbarten indischen Bundesstaaten
   Jammu und Kaschmir werden mehr als 250 Tote gemeldet. Das Beben der
   Stärke 7,6 auf der Richterskala hatte am Samstag Morgen den Norden
   Pakistans, die Kaschmir-Region sowie Gebiete im Norden Indiens und
   im Nordosten Afghanistans erschüttert. Es gab mehrere Nachbeben. Das
   Epizentrum der Erdstöße befand sich rund hundert Kilometer nördlich
   der pakistanischen Hauptstadt Islamabad. Dort stürzten zwei
   Hochhäuser ein. Die Erschütterungen waren bis nach Kabul, Neu-Delhi
   und auch Dhaka in Bangladesch zu spüren. Das betroffene Gebiet ist
   geologisch sehr aktiv, weil es an der Nahtstelle zweier geologischer
   Platten liegt. Experten hatten schon länger ein größeres Erdbeben in
   der Region erwartet.

Der einzige mir bekannte Erdbebenschaden in Afghanistan erfolgte in der Nacht nach dem Beben: Unser noch nicht fertiggestellter Brunnen in CITY brach in sich zusammen und verursachte einen gewaltigen Tagesbruch...