In the year 2000 I travelled in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, or the NWFP. These are the tribal lands of the Pashtun tribes bordering Afghanistan, located around the Khyber Pass and surrounds. The people were very welcoming and had the tradition of “honouring the Guest” so I was, for the most part, not in any danger.

Darra Adam Khel is a village on the Afghan-Pakistan border where every household has a centuries-long tradition of making guns by hand using tools not always powered by electricity. The picture on the right shows a kalashnikov, but the little pen beneath it is a .22 caliber disposable gun as well.

The Khyber Pass is the only overland route between Europe and Asia, so every great army in the world had marched through it, from Genghiz Khan to Alexander the Great to Hannibal. The British and the Soviets vied for control of the region from 1897 onwards. The British called it “The Great Game”. The Soviets, on the other hand, called it “The Tournament of Shadows.” this is the title of the picture here on the right, In Chitral. Chitral is the home of polo, legend says it was invented by the soldiers of Genghiz Khan, using the heads of their enemies as the ball.

From Chitral I visited the Kalash valleys, all in the area of the Hindu Kush. Legend has it that the Kalasha are descendants from soldiers who deserted from the army of Alexander the Great. Their features are more European; they have their own customs and language.