From time immemorial, merchants, pilgrims, and invaders from East and West have penetrated the high valleys of Afghanistan. In this resonant account, Peter Levi seeks the clues which each migration left, in the company of the young Bruce Chatwin. Since his journey, Afghanistan has suffered forty years of invasion and civil war, making it all the more poignant to rediscover `this highway of archangels/this theatre of heaven/the light garden of the God-forgiven angel King.'