A small surviving fragment of old Kabul tucked between the river and the bazaar — a maze of narrow lanes lined with two-storey mud-brick houses, carved cedar balconies, and timber-framed windows that look out over courtyards too small for cars to enter. The neighbourhood was built in the eighteenth century by an Uzbek warlord, ignored by twentieth-century planners, and almost lost in the civil war.
The Turquoise Mountain Foundation has spent twenty years restoring the buildings and running craft workshops in them. You can visit the workshops, watch the gem cutters and woodcarvers at work, and buy directly from the artisans — one of the few places in Kabul where you can do that with confidence.