One of Band-e-Amir's six lakes (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

How do you feel about vacationing in Afghanistan?

Well, if you’re intrigued, there’s a national park you can visit: Band-e-Amir. You’ll need to line up a ride in a minibus out of Bamiyan, according to LonelyPlanet.com. And there are stretches of road from which you simply shouldn’t stray — mines lie in the dirt beyond. But there’s a gift at the end of this three-hour drive: six, pure turquoise lakes that contrast the surrounding tan cliffs like jewels in a sandbox.

Besides the striking lakes, waterfalls and cliffs, there’s the striking fact that a national park even exists in a country that’s been so war-torn for so long. Before 1979, Band-e-Amir had attracted local travelers as well as travelers from Russia. But between 1979 and 2001, that tourist attention turned to a trickle. Today, you’ll mostly find Afghan daytrippers in Band-e-Amir — lining up to take a paddle boat ride on the lake. But the folks who pushed for Band-e-Amir to finally become designated by law as a national park, which happened in April 2009, hope it will eventually return to international tourist attraction status, according to the BBC. Perhaps it will even become designated as a World Heritage Site.

Conservationists are happy to see the region protected. The snow leopards that once roamed the area have disappeared — they were hunted out of Band-e-Amir in the 1980s. But there are other survivors — wolves, wild goats, wild sheep, foxes, fish and birds, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

What do you think? Would you be interested in visiting the park?

Visitors to Band-e-Amir can take these swan-shaped paddle boats out onto the lake. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

For more information on Afghanistan’s wildlife, read Sarah Dowdey’s Discovery News post.