History in the Breaking

Ghazni's old fortress         Hedayatullah Hamim/BBC

The old Afghan city of Ghazni mirrors the fate of so many historical sites that are crumbling due to war, neglect, and the changing vagaries of local authorities. As a current stronghold of the Taliban, Ghazni is off limits to Westerners, but at least we can look at pictures and hope that it will survive this phase of the country's history (slideshow): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22124146