Algerian academic and traveller Mohamed Maimoun arrived in Kabul in September 2026 to begin a journey through several Afghan cities, seeking an image that went beyond what he had learned about the country from news reports and books.
Maimoun begins his Afghan journey between the cities
Afghanistan was the 119th country he had visited after travelling through 118 countries, but this time he arrived carrying preconceived impressions shaped by a country associated for decades with wars, conflicts and crises. Maimoun did not approach the visit as a quick sightseeing tour. He wanted to get closer to the details of society and test the difference between the prevailing image of Afghanistan and what could be seen on the ground.
He therefore travelled between Kabul, Ghazni, Mazar-i-Sharif and Balkh, visiting markets, mosques, gardens and historical sites, while meeting academics, students, journalists and people going about their daily lives. Maimoun combines travel with academic work: he is a university professor and a trainer in management and strategic planning, with a professional career spanning more than two decades.
He served as executive director of the Arab International Academy for Training and Development in Beirut between 2009 and 2017, and also headed the Islamic Institute for Training Imams and Preachers in Algeria. This combination of education and travel has made his journeys a means of discovering cultures and reassessing stereotypes about societies. Maimoun says many aspects of what he found in Afghanistan differed from his expectations.
Everyday Kabul between markets and gardens
In Kabul, he saw a city moving to the rhythm of daily life, from markets, restaurants and neighbourhoods to gardens, families and children. At the same time, he does not present his experience as idealised: he observed poverty, limited services and the effects of decades of war, as well as social restrictions he said he encountered during his tour. His experience in the capital began with arrival procedures at Kabul airport that he described as quick, before he moved directly into the city’s streets.
At the beginning of the journey, he went to Qargha Lake and the gardens of Baghman, then continued moving between markets, restaurants and neighbourhoods, observing aspects of life that do not usually appear in coverage focused on political and security developments. At the Gardens of Babur, he was struck by a quiet green space within a city whose name has been associated in many people’s minds with war and conflict.
He also visited the Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque and Pul-e Khishti Mosque, and walked through the Mandawi area. His interest was not limited to landmarks: he asked about daily living conditions and spoke to academics, journalists, students and people he encountered while travelling around. Maimoun says hospitality was one of the details that remained most strongly in his memory of Kabul.
On more than one occasion, he felt he was being welcomed as a guest whom people wanted to get to know, while also wanting to introduce him to their country. As the journey progressed, human encounters became more prominent in his experience than simply viewing places or recording tourist stops. From the capital, Maimoun travelled to Ghazni province, which he had previously known from books as an important landmark in the region’s history.
Ghazni reveals Afghanistan’s history
But he wanted to see the traces of that history on the ground. He says the visit made him feel what he describes as “historical Afghanistan”, an image that goes beyond the country’s contemporary reality to a legacy linked to Islamic civilisation and the great cities of Khorasan.
The Algerian traveller believes this legacy requires greater protection and care, because the value of historical sites, in his view, lies not merely in their being old buildings, but in the layers of Afghanistan’s history and cultural memory they preserve. In the cities he visited, he found a connection between the historical landmarks and the people living around them, rather than ruins detached from the society’s present.
This impression accords with the position of archaeological researcher Ketab Khan Faizi, who stressed that the restoration of historical sites must be based on scientific research and documentation. Faizi called for studies of each site to be completed before reconstruction or restoration begins, emphasising the importance of accurately understanding a site’s history and characteristics before any work is carried out there.
Faizi does not limit the preservation of sites to restoration alone, but calls for a combination of archaeological research, documentation, restoration and protection. He also stresses the need for institutions, researchers and relevant bodies to work together to safeguard antiquities and historical landmarks and preserve their value as part of the country’s memory.
Mazar-i-Sharif and Balkh: the reach of cultural memory
Maimoun continued from Ghazni to Mazar-i-Sharif, where he found a strong presence of religious and historical symbolism, and then travelled on to Balkh, which he saw as an extension of the region’s memory. He says Mazar-i-Sharif and Balkh were among the journey’s most affecting stops, because he felt he was standing before living pages of the region’s history, not relics isolated from their present reality.
Meetings with Afghans were central to the impressions he formed. During one such meeting, he was surprised to find that some students were studying “Al-Ajurrumiyyah” in Arabic grammar, a text written by the Moroccan scholar Ibn Ajurrum al-Sanhaji. Maimoun saw this as a detail revealing the reach of cultural ties and their ability to emerge in places geographically distant from the text’s original home.
Afghan cuisine provided another entry point for understanding local culture during the journey. Maimoun says qabuli palaw was among the most memorable dishes, alongside kebabs and Afghan bread. He was also struck by the fruit he ate or saw, including grapes, pomegranates and melons.
Afghan tea did not generate the same enthusiasm in him as the other foods, but he felt that the value of the gatherings around it went beyond the taste of the drink. They provided space for conversation and getting to know one another, and the tables became part of the cultural journey, with discussions about Algeria, Afghanistan, history, study and the details of daily life.
Maimoun believes that the image of Afghanistan reaching many Arabs is focused on war, explosions, weapons and conflict, but that this alone is not enough to reveal society and its daily life. As he travelled, he saw students, academics, traders, families and children, as well as markets, mosques, gardens and historical sites, alongside the economic and social problems he witnessed himself.
The traveller does not deny the existence of poverty, limited services or social restrictions. But he says that forming a closer understanding of Afghanistan requires engaging with society and listening to its people, rather than relying solely on an image received from outside.
For someone who has visited 119 countries, the presence of history in daily life was one of the most distinctive aspects of this experience. He found that the names of cities, landmarks and figures he had read about were connected to places, people and a living memory. In Maimoun’s view, the journey was not simply movement between Afghan cities; it enabled him to discover cultural and human points of connection between Algeria and Afghanistan.
He met students studying Arabic and spoke with academics and students about history, religion and culture. These details led him to see that the geographical distance between the two countries did not mean an absence of cultural ties. Maimoun sums up his impression of Afghanistan in three words: “beauty, life and certainty”.
For him, beauty is not limited to nature or historical buildings, but also includes the details he encountered through contact with people. He sees life in a society that continues its daily routine despite the effects of decades of turmoil, while he links certainty to the identity, memory and deeply rooted traditions he found.
From Kabul to Ghazni, then Mazar-i-Sharif and Balkh, the journey appeared to him as a passage through multiple layers of the country: a modern capital carrying on with the details of its daily life, cities bearing the traces of successive civilisations, and a society preserving its customs, relationships and memory. He says he left Afghanistan feeling that he had not merely discovered a country, but had above all come to know people, stories and a human memory.
The experience led Maimoun to consider returning to continue getting to know the society and the people he met, as well as visiting sites he did not reach on his first tour. On future journeys, he plans to travel to Herat, Kandahar and Jalalabad, completing the route he began in September 2026.
