Paul Clammer has worked as a tour guide in Morocco, Turkey and Pakistan. In 1998, he was staying with friends in Mashad, Iran, reading The Road to Oxiana and dreaming of Herat when the Taliban rolled in to Mazar-e Sharif. Three years later he finally made it to Afghanistan, only to find himself having dinner with two Taliban ministers less than a fortnight before the attacks of 9/11. He has since written on Afghanistan for Lonely Planet, as well as a writing guidebook to Sudan for Bradt Travel Guides.

Thanks
For their permission to reproduce extracts from their work thanks to Tamim Ansary, Jonny Bealby, Jason Elliot, Christopher Kremmer, Christina Lamb, Ahmed Rashid, John Simpson and Rory Stewart. Thanks also to Ted Rall for permission to reproduce his cartoon on tourism in Afghanistan.

For help updating specific sections, thanks to Andrea Cunningham, Morgan Caroll, Alex Strick Van Linschoten, Yousaf Akhtar, Regis Lefevre, Stefania Zamparelli and Joop Van Dijk. Thanks as always to Vanni Cappelli.

Images on the following page banners are the copyright of their owners: Luke Powell (North-West, Uzbekistan, Badakhshan), Lina Abirafeh (Afghanistan in 2005, Credits), Rafaelle Ciriello (Country Guide, Links, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, South), Stephen Derungs (Home page, Iran). The provenance of other banner photos is not known - if you are the copyright holder, please contact us so that you may be credited.

Thanks to Laura Naylor of Sublime by Design for help with coding the website.