Bargi Matal

Bargi Matal lies high in Nuristan's north-east, at the head of the Bashgal valley, whose river runs down past Kamdesh to join the Kunar. It is among the most remote of the eight districts: forested, thinly settled and reached by long mountain roads.

The district centre sits at roughly 2,100 metres on the Landai Sin, the river of the upper Bashgal, and the road in continues north from Kamdesh along the water. Its villages are built the Nuristani way, in timber and stone above the river, with footbridges linking fields and houses. Summers are green and busy; winters close the high routes and turn the district inward.

For the traveller this is the province at its wildest. The reward for the journey is country that few travellers reach, and the hospitality that Nuristan is known for at the end of it.