AFGHANISTAN-TOURISM

In this photograph taken on November 5, 2016, an Afghan man rides a horse overlooking Band-e-Amir lake, the first national park in Afghanistan in the central province of Bamiyan, which is a top tourist destination mainly for Afghan visitors. - Bamiyan, some 200 kilometres (124 miles) northwest of Kabul, stands in a deep green and lush valley stretching 100 kilometres through central Afghanistan, on the former Silk Road that once linked China with Central Asia and beyond. The town was home to two nearly 2,000-year-old Buddha statues before they were destroyed by the Taliban, months before their regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001. (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR and - / AFP) (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images)