The bare brown hills that ring Maimana give the city its character. Faryab is a province of grasslands, dry ridges, and seasonal streams — the kind of country where Turkic and Mongol horse cultures thrived for centuries. In spring, after the snowmelt, the hills briefly turn green, dotted with wildflowers and the black goat-hair tents of the kuchi nomads who graze their flocks here. By midsummer the landscape is back to its usual tan-and-ochre palette.
A short drive or walk out of town brings you onto the ridges above the river valley, with broad views over Maimana, the patchwork of irrigated farmland along the watercourses, and the dry country stretching toward the Turkmen border to the north. Security has been variable in the surrounding districts for decades, and any excursion outside the city itself should only be made with reliable local advice.