Kamdesh

Kamdesh sits in eastern Nuristan, on the slopes above the Bashgal valley. It is the home country of the Kom people, and the Kamkata-viri speech of the east is heard here in its local forms.

The district is a showcase of Nuristani building. Its villages stack up the mountainside so that one house's roof serves as the next one's yard, and the carved timber of the older houses shows the same craft that fills the province's workshops.

Kamdesh has long been the outside world's window on Nuristan. Sir George Scott Robertson lived here in 1890 and 1891, gathering the material for The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush, still the classic account of old Kafiristan. The district also holds the Paprok pegmatite field, a noted source of coloured tourmaline, kunzite and other gem minerals.

Kamdesh also keeps the region's sporting traditions alive: archery with the long wooden bow is a celebrated pastime, and contests still draw villages together by the river.