Sources thermales d'Hérat

The Thermal Springs of Herat in western Afghanistan rise near the ancient city of Herat, one of the greatest urban centres of the medieval Islamic world, whose magnificent Friday Mosque, Timurid minarets, and citadel above the Hari Rud River reflect the extraordinary cultural flowering that occurred here under the patronage of the Timurid dynasty in the fifteenth century, when Herat rivalled Constantinople and Florence as a centre of art, literature, and architecture in the pre-modern world. The bicarbonate and sodium-rich spring water of the Herat region provides thermal bathing in a landscape shaped by the ancient irrigation systems that have made this corner of Afghanistan agriculturally productive for thousands of years, supporting the silk, saffron, and pomegranate cultivation for which the Herat region has been celebrated across the Islamic world since medieval times. The springs represent one of many undocumented natural wellness assets in a city whose extraordinary cultural heritage, from the calligraphy of Sultan Husayn Bayqarah's court to the minarets visible from the modern city's rooftops, gives every element of the local landscape a historical depth of remarkable richness.