It’s easy to see why Her­at – the third-largest city in Afghanistan – has such a Per­sian fla­vor to it: the town sits just a stone’s throw from the Iran­ian bor­der, and it was once the home of the Timurid dynasty (a lin­eage that fused ele­ments of Tur­kic, Per­sian and Mon­gol cul­ture in their time). The great piece de resis­tance of the city is The Fri­day Mosque.