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Mazār-e Sharīf
Provincial capital in Balkh, Afghanistan

Mazār-e Sharīf

Mazar-i-Sharif or Mazar-e-Sharif is a city in northern Afghanistan, serving as the capital and largest city of Balkh Province.

Plan a trip to Mazār-e Sharīf→From Kabul

It has 12 city districts (nahias) and an estimated population of 568,013 people. Hafiz Abdul Rahman Himat is the current mayor of the city. His predecessor was Mohammad Kazim Tariq.

Get in

Getting to Mazār-e Sharīf

  1. 01
    Kabul Bus Station

    The journey from Kabul takes 8-10 hours (or as long as 12 hours), via the Salang Pass.

  2. 02
    Mazar-e Sharif International Airport
See

Worth seeing

In the way of sights Mazar has little to offer the visitor other than the Blue Mosque, although some of the modern monuments built atop traffic circles are worth a photo.

  1. 01
    Blue Mosque

    The shrine marks the burial site of Ali bin Talib, the Prophet Mohammad's cousin and the fourth caliph of Islam.

  2. 02
    Qala-i-Jangi
  3. 03
    Takht-e Rustam
Eat

Where to eat

Restaurant menus are usually only available in Dari. It is probably easiest to use AI to translate. Food stall abound on the streets surrounding the Blue Mosque. Bagels with green vegetables, tomato and french fries are especially good. Fruit shakes, soft drinks and tea are also available. Perhaps obviously, be very careful about what you choose to eat.

  1. 01
    Mansoor Restaurant

    Delicious local and Western food with a Trumpian decor.

  2. 02
    Kefyat Hotel
  3. 03
    Rayhan Restaurant
How locals move

Getting around Mazār-e Sharīf the local way

  • Get inThe back road from Herat via Maimana is a very rough 3-day journey requiring a 4wd vehicle with back country preparation, and is no longer considered safe.
  • Get inWalk the rest of the way across the bridge, get stamped in by the Taliban, and then take a shared taxi to Mazar for AFN 150-300 or a private taxi for AFN 800-1000 (2026).
  • Get aroundZaranj (tuk-tuks/auto-rickshaws) are also plentiful and even cheaper.
  • Go nextShared taxis head to the Uzbekistan border (better rates when taking one from the bus terminal, 200-400 Afs (2026) depending on your negotiating skills; otherwise city rates apply) - taking 30 minutes on a good tarred road through the desert.

From Wikivoyage: Mazar-e Sharif, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-07.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Mortazaali787 (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons.