Massoud's Tomb

Massoud is the hero of the Tajiks and of many Afghans for his heroic role in the resistance against the Soviet invasion. He was also no friend of the Taliban. Of significance at least as important as 9/11 in Afghanistan was 9/9/01, when Al Qaeda assassinated Massoud and crippled the leadership of the Tajik part of the Northern Alliance. Two men posing as journalists blew up a bomb hidden in a video camera; he died a few days later. Since 2003 the locals in the Panjshir valley near his home have been building a monument where his tomb is located. Here are views inside the still-unfinished monument, shots of the valley below it (it is on a very high hill in terrain that ranges from 8,000 to 14,000+ feet above sea level), proving that Afghanistan is not all brown and gray, and a shot of some of the destroyed Soviet equipment that litters the Panjshir valley to this day, left there as a memorial and as a boast of Afghan victory over the invaders.