Qala-e Naw

Qala-e Naw lies among the hills of Badghis, north of Herat. The surrounding country is known for its pistachio woods, a characteristic already noted by the fourteenth-century geographer Hamdallah Mustawfi. At harvest time, he wrote, people gathered the nuts and sold them in neighbouring districts. The hills and valleys of Badghis separate the Hari valley from the lands watered by the Murghab farther north, and their scattered trees give the dry slopes a distinctive appearance.