The Shattered Remains Of Afghanistan's Versailles

The ferocity of Afghan resistance to foreign rule has been recorded down the centuries, from Alexander the Great to our own modern times. Yet it is not only outsiders who have been the focus of the ire of the Afghan people.

The first Afghan ruler who endeavored to modernize Afghanistan on a western model, Amanullah Khan, was eventually forced to flee his own country. His once opulent palaces are now testimony to the conflict and violence which have dogged this complex country for more than a century.