“There was a time, long ago, when Kabul sat at an axis of global power, its rulers enthroned in a vast citadel, surrounded by Buddhist monasteries, on the crossroads of trading routes that took wealth and learning to all points of Asia and beyond,” FP’s Lynne O’Donnell writes. “Today, the remains of that citadel tell the story of thousands of years in the history of what is now a very different Afghanistan.”

In this edition of Flash Points, we wanted to share our essays and reporting on historic sites around the world—from Afghanistan’s Bala Hissar to Laos’s Luang Prabang—and the stories they tell about their countries’ past and future as they’re being preserved, disputed, and destroyed.—Chloe Hadavas

Shusha was the key to the recent war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Now Baku wants to turn the fabled fortress town into a resort, Liz Cookman writes.

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Armenian News note: For additional places and sites around the world, please click on the link below: