Kabul's most famous shopping street, a few hundred metres of small shops south of the Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood. In the 1960s and 1970s, when Kabul was a stop on the overland hippie trail, the street was full of carpets, lapis lazuli, antique jewellery, and Afghan rugs sold to backpackers; in the 2000s and 2010s it served the foreign diplomatic and military communities; today, with both gone, it is much quieter.
The shops still sell carpets — Hazara, Turkmen, Baluchi — silver jewellery, semi-precious stones from Badakhshan, and the occasional genuine antique. Bargain firmly: prices triple when foreigners walk in. Buy with help from a local you trust if you can.