In this vivid and captivating journey through the colors of an artist’s palette, Victoria Finlay takes us on an enthralling adventure around the world and through the ages, illuminating how the colors we choose to value have determined the history of culture itself. How did the most precious color blue travel all the way from remote lapis mines in Afghanistan to Michelangelo’s brush? What is the connection between brown paint and ancient Egyptian mummies? Why did Robin Hood wear Lincoln green? In Color, Finlay explores the physical materials that color our world, such as precious minerals and insect blood, as well as the social and political meanings that color has carried through time. Roman emperors used to wear togas dyed with a purple color that was made from an odorous Lebanese shellfish–which probably meant their scent preceded them. In the eighteenth century, black dye was called logwood and grew along the Spanish Main. Some of the first indigo plantations were started in America, amazingly enough, by a seventeen-year-old girl named Eliza. And the popular van Gogh painting White Roses at Washington’s National Gallery had to be renamed after a researcher discovered that the flowers were originally done in a pink paint that had faded nearly a century ago. Color is full of extraordinary people, events, and anecdotes–painted all the more dazzling by Finlay’s engaging style. Embark upon a thrilling adventure with this intrepid journalist as she travels on a donkey along ancient silk trade routes; with the Phoenicians sailing the Mediterranean in search of a special purple shell that garners wealth, sustenance, and prestige; with modern Chilean farmers breeding and bleeding insects for their viscous red blood. The colors that craft our world have never looked so bright. Read more

An award-winning journalist reveals the dramatic true story of the CIA's Team Alpha, the first Americans to be dropped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan after 9/11. America is reeling; Al-Qaeda has struck and thousands are dead. The country scrambles to respond, but the Pentagon has no plan for Afghanistan—where Osama bin Laden masterminded the attack and is protected by the Taliban. Instead, the CIA steps forward to spearhead the war. Eight CIA officers are dropped into the mountains of northern Afghanistan on October 17, 2001. They are Team Alpha, an eclectic band of linguists, tribal experts, and elite warriors: the first Americans to operate inside Taliban territory. Their covert mission is to track down Al- Qaeda and stop the terrorists from infiltrating the United States again.  First Casualty places you with Team Alpha as the CIA rides into battle on horseback alongside the warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. In Washington, DC, few trust that the CIA men, the Green Berets, and the Americans’ outnumbered Afghan allies can prevail before winter sets in. On the ground, Team Alpha is undeterred. The Taliban is routed but hatches a plot with Al-Qaeda to hit back. Hundreds of suicidal fighters, many hiding weapons, fake a surrender and are transported to Qala-i Jangi—the “Fort of War.”   Team Alpha’s Mike Spann, an ex-Marine, and David Tyson, a polyglot former Central Asian studies academic, seize America’s initial opportunity to extract intelligence from men trained by bin Laden—among them a young Muslim convert from California. The prisoners revolt and one CIA officer falls—the first casualty in America’s longest war, which will last two decades. The other CIA man shoots dead the Al-Qaeda jihadists attacking his comrade. To survive, he must fight his way out against overwhelming odds.   Award-winning author Toby Harnden gained unprecedented access to all living Team Alpha members and every level of the CIA. Superbly researched, First Casualty draws on extensive interviews, secret documents, and deep reporting inside Afghanistan. As gripping as any adventure novel, yet intimate and profoundly moving, it tells how America found a winning strategy only to abandon it. Harnden reveals that the lessons of early victory and the haunting foretelling it contained—unreliable allies, ethnic rivalries, suicide attacks, and errant US bombs—were ignored, tragically fueling a twenty-year conflict. "Masterful, complex, and heartfelt, from the deeply personal to the critically strategic. Captures many lessons on many levels." —Ambassador Hank Crumpton, former senior CIA officer Read more

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On August 15th, 2021, the nation of Afghanistan passed from West back to East. On that day the victorious Taliban insurgency retook the city of Kabul after twenty years of American occupation. The NATO-backed government had collapsed within days. Tens of thousands of people fled to the city to seek refuge and evacuation. And there in Kabul was a hitherto unknown British university student enjoying his holiday, suddenly caught up in history. Lord Miles Routledge was the last person issued a tourist visa by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Miles began chronicling his travels in one of the most dangerous countries in the world on the online message board 4chan, where he found himself with a riveted global audience. When the Taliban reached Kabul, headlines around the world picked up his story and people watched to see if he would make it back home. Fortunately, he did, and through the process discovered his calling as a true modern adventurer, traveling over the following year to other places including the Kazakhstan protests, the frontlines of the Ukraine conflict, South Sudan, and eventually back to Afghanistan for some desert target practice with his new friends in the Taliban. This book is his first-hand account of his first and most infamous trip to Afghanistan. Miles experiences a fascinating kaleidoscope of natural beauty, war-torn desolation, poverty, humanity, courage, and generosity. He finds himself in many places off the beaten path and meets a colorful range of characters. Throughout it all, his eternal optimism and indomitable faith ensure an invigorating narration for this unique journey. Antelope Hill Publishing is proud to present Lord Miles Routledge's autobiographical account, Lord Miles in Afghanistan. This fantastic journey by a unique author showcases the best of the adventuring European spirit. Read more

'Here we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything even die.Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram mountains, PakistanIn 1993, after a terrifying and disastrous attempt to climb K2, a mountaineer called Greg Mortenson drifted, cold and dehydrated, into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram Mountains. Moved by the inhabitants' kindness, he promised to return and build a school. Three Cups of Tea is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome. Over the next decade Mortenson built not just one but fifty-five schools especially for girls in remote villages across the forbidding and breathtaking landscape of Pakistan and Afghanistan, just as the Taliban rose to power. His story is at once a riveting adventure and a testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit. Read more

Lonely Planet's Farsi (Persian) Phrasebook and Dictionary is your handy passport to culturally enriching travels with the most relevant and useful Indian phrases and vocabulary for all your travel needs. Bargain in a bazaar, hike to out-of-the-way locations, or order a local speciality for your midday meal; all with your trusted travel companion.Get More From Your Trip with Easy-to-Find Phrases for Every Travel Situation!Feel at ease with essential tips on culture, manners, idioms and multiple meaningsOrder with confidence, explain food allergies, and try new foods with the menu decoderSave time and hassles with vital phrases at your fingertipsNever get stuck for words with the 3500-word two-way, quick-reference dictionaryBe prepared for both common and emergency travel situations with practical phrases and terminologyMeet friends with conversation starter phrasesGet your message across with easy-to-use pronunciation guidesInside Lonely Planet's Farsi (Persian) Phrasebook and Dictionary:Full-colour throughoutUser-friendly layout organised by travel scenario categoriesSurvival phrases inside front cover for at-a-glance, on-the-fly cuesConvenient features5 Phrases to Learn Before You Go10 Ways to Start a Sentence10 Phrases to Sound like a LocalListen For - phrases you may hearLook For - phrases you may see on signsShortcuts - easy-to-remember alternatives to the full phrasesQandA - suggested answers to questions askedCoversBasics - time, dates, numbers, amounts, pronunciation, reading tips, grammar rulesPractical - travel with kids, disabled travellers, sightseeing, business, banking, post office, internet, phones, repairs, bargaining, accommodation, directions, border crossing, transportSocial - meeting people, interests, feelings, opinions, going out, romance, culture, activities, weatherSafe Travel - emergencies, police, doctor, chemist, dentist, symptoms, conditionsFood - ordering, at the market, at the bar, dishes, ingredientsThe Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet's Farsi (Persian) Phrasebook and Dictionary, a pocket-sized comprehensive language guide, provides on-the-go language assistance; great for language students and travellers looking to interact with locals and immerse themselves in local culture.About Lonely Planet:Lonely Planet, a Red Ventures Company, is the world's number one travel guidebook brand. Providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973, Lonely Planet reaches hundreds of millions of travellers each year online and in print and helps them unlock amazing experiences. Visit us at lonelyplanet.com and join our community of followers on Facebook (facebook.com/lonelyplanet), Twitter (@lonelyplanet), Instagram (instagram.com/lonelyplanet), and TikTok (@lonelyplanet).'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' Fairfax Media (Australia) Read more

“A lively popular history of an oft-overlooked element in the development of human society” (Library Journal)—walls—and a haunting and eye-opening saga that reveals a startling link between what we build and how we live.With esteemed historian David Frye as our raconteur-guide in Walls, which Publishers Weekly praises as “informative, relevant, and thought-provoking,” we journey back to a time before barriers of brick and stone even existed—to an era in which nomadic tribes vied for scarce resources, and each man was bred to a life of struggle. Ultimately, those same men would create edifices of mud, brick, and stone, and with them effectively divide humanity: on one side were those the walls protected; on the other, those the walls kept out. The stars of this narrative are the walls themselves—rising up in places as ancient and exotic as Mesopotamia, Babylon, Greece, China, Rome, Mongolia, Afghanistan, the lower Mississippi, and even Central America. As we journey across time and place, we discover a hidden, thousand-mile-long wall in Asia's steppes; learn of bizarre Spartan rituals; watch Mongol chieftains lead their miles-long hordes; witness the epic siege of Constantinople; chill at the fate of French explorers; marvel at the folly of the Maginot Line; tense at the gathering crisis in Cold War Berlin; gape at Hollywood’s gated royalty; and contemplate the wall mania of our own era. Hailed by Kirkus Reviews as “provocative, well-written, and—with walls rising everywhere on the planet—timely,” Walls gradually reveals the startling ways that barriers have affected our psyches. The questions this book summons are both intriguing and profound: Did walls make civilization possible? And can we live without them? Find out in this masterpiece of historical recovery and preeminent storytelling. Read more

First published in 1963, James A. Michener’s gripping chronicle of the social and political landscape of Afghanistan is more relevant now than ever. Combining fact with riveting adventure and intrigue, Michener follows a military man tasked, in the years after World War II, with a dangerous assignment: finding and returning a young American woman living in Afghanistan to her distraught family after she suddenly and mysteriously disappears. A timeless tale of love and emotional drama set against the backdrop of one of the most important countries in the world today, Caravans captures the tension of the postwar period, the sweep of Afghanistan’s remarkable history, and the inescapable allure of the past.   Praise for Caravans   “Brilliant . . . an extraordinary novel . . . The old nomadic trails across the mountains spring into existence.”—The New York Times   “Romantic and adventurous . . . [Michener] has a wonderful empathy for the wild and free and an understanding of the reasons behind the kind of cruelty that goes with it.”—Newsday   “Michener has done for Afghanistan what . . . his first [book] did for the South Pacific.”—The New York Herald Tribune Read more

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The art of haiku uses a structured, constrained format to immerse the reader in a self-contained story unique to every poem. 575-365: Haiku Every Day presents haiku for the reader to enjoy each day throughout a full year. Beautiful or striking on their surface, the nature of these works is that they reward deep contemplation and reveal layered meaning over time. Mystical and mythical tales, comedic diversions, heartbreaking truths, and thought-provoking observations await within. Read more

Shortly before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, David Chaffetz slipped from the protection of Western culture and immersed himself in the customs, fears, and hopes of the Afghan people, setting out by car and on horseback for a long journey through the northwestern quarter of the country. A Journey through Afghanistan is the story, told in vivid, descriptive prose, of his experienceâ an account that reveals more about the Afghan people themselves than most books written either before or since. Read more

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the international media showed John Weaver serving on the front line of Afghanistan’s civil war—on a mission of mercy to overcome evil with good. As this surprising news went viral, everyone was asking, what is he doing there? Step Inside Afghanistan and discover the answer to that burning question. As you journey through the danger zones, climb the mountains of pain, and sift through the sands of devastation, you will encounter something amazing and totally unexpected—the love of God. Read more

War-torn deserts, jihadist killings, trucks weighted down with contraband and migrants—from the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands to the Sahara, images of danger depict a new world disorder on the global margins. With vivid detail, Ruben Andersson traverses this terrain to provide a startling new understanding of what is happening in remote “danger zones.” Instead of buying into apocalyptic visions, Andersson takes aim at how Western states and international organizations conduct military, aid, and border interventions in a dangerously myopic fashion, further disconnecting the world’s rich and poor. Using drones, proxy forces, border reinforcement, and outsourced aid, risk-obsessed powers are helping to remap the world into zones of insecurity and danger. The result is a vision of chaos crashing into fortified borders, with national and global politics riven by fear. Andersson contends that we must reconnect and snap out of this dangerous spiral, which affects us whether we live in Texas or Timbuktu. Only by developing a new cartography of hope can we move beyond the political geography of fear that haunts us. Read more

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"The Gem Hunter," Gary W. Bowersox, tells his own personal story of over thirty years spent searching for precious gems in the mountains and valleys of rugged Afghanistan. During his many adventures of exploration, danger and intrigue, Gary trades gems and stories with Afghan miners, ethnic people, freedom fighters, government officials, scientists, and on a few occasions, international spies. His account is the true story of a life spent hunting the beautiful rubies, emeralds, sapphires, aquamarines, tourmalines and lapis lazuli of Afghanistan. Read more

“Thorough and beautifully illustrated, this book is a comprehensive―and fun―window into Afghan history, culture, and traditions. A must-have for travel readers and a gripping read for anyone with even a passing interest in Afghanistan.”―Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner Thanks to 20 years of civil war and its association with terrorism, Afghanistan is often unjustly thought of in the West as a barbarous backwater. This guide dispels that image in a comprehensive introduction to 3,500 years of Afghan culture. Each chapter looks at the major cities and regions, describing their distinctive cultural and ethnic traditions, and their associations with poets, artists, musicians, travelers, and holy men, as well as warriors and conquerors. Wonderfully illustrated, this book also features engravings, paintings, and images of priceless museum artifacts. A number of specialist essays by leading experts present topics such as archeology, architecture, carpets, flora and fauna, miniature painting, and music. 307 color photographs and 19 maps and plans Read more

NEW EDITING: 01.2023. Mistakes corrected!!! VOL 2 IS NOW AVAILABLE !!! SEARCH FOR: English - Pashto Bilingual Pictures Dictionary Vol. 2English - Pashto bilingual dictionary contains of more than 400 words in the following categories:-Home,-Health,-Body,-Numbers,-Clothes,-Food,-Human,-Weather,-Colors. Next to everypage, there is place for practicing your hand writing. There are also some pages left at the end if you need more space.This book is perfect to learn the language for adults and for kids. Read more

Drawing on ancient historical writings, the vast array of information gleaned in recent years from the study of Hellenistic coins, and startling archaeological evidence newly unearthed in Afghanistan, Frank L. Holt sets out to rediscover the ancient civilization of Bactria. In a gripping narrative informed by the author’s deep knowledge of his subject, this book covers two centuries of Bactria’s history, from its colonization by remnants of Alexander the Great’s army to the kingdom’s collapse at the time of a devastating series of nomadic invasions. Beginning with the few tantalizing traces left behind when the ‘empire of a thousand cities’ vanished, Holt takes up that trail and follows the remarkable and sometimes perilous journey of rediscovery.Lost World of the Ancient King describes how a single bit of evidence―a Greek coin―launched a search that drew explorers to the region occupied by the tumultuous warring tribes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Afghanistan. Coin by coin, king by king, the history of Bactria was reconstructed using the emerging methodologies of numismatics. In the twentieth century, extraordinary ancient texts added to the evidence. Finally, one of the ‘thousand cities’ was discovered and excavated, revealing an opulent palace, treasury, temple, and other buildings. Though these great discoveries soon fell victim to the Afghan political crisis that continues today, this book provides a thrilling chronicle of the search for one of the world’s most enigmatic empires. Read more