herat's citadel has its origins in the time of alexander the great. it was employed as a site for war-making + imprisonment between the 14th and 20th centuries.
[prison corridor]
[an opening into the ancient world]
we were fortunate to have the place to ourselves after paying for an after-hours tour with a v. charming guard.
here, he demonstrates how the topmost windows were used . . .
three kites had been trapped within the citadel's high walls, and our guard rescued each + tried to relaunch them.
we spent a great deal of time discussing this section of ground. in the lower layers of the sediment, the rusty objects you see are gun shells from the afghan-british wars of the mid-late 1800s. the upper layers contain plastic used at some stage in the site's restoration. the gun shells were never removed and are integrated throughout the land. an archeologist's dream, + for me, yet another palimpsest.
[click above to enlarge - check out the shells!]
[wall construction detail]
[ceiling tile detail]
[an unusual + well-tended green patch within the walls of the citadel]
and, finally, i was able to upload the v. special citadel kite launch video!
