The Lakes of Band-e Amir
In the bare mountains of Afghanistan, six lakes of deep blue water are held back by walls that look built. Legend says Ali made them with his sword.
What was reported
Band-e Amir is a chain of six lakes high in the Hindu Kush, west of Bamyan. Their water is an intense blue, and each is held in by a natural wall of white rock, so they look like a series of dams, set down in a dry, treeless landscape.
The name means 'dam of the commander', for Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. A legend says he built the dams, in one version with a blow of his sword, to free the people from a cruel king who controlled the water.
Explanations offered
The walls are travertine, a rock made when water rich in dissolved minerals loses carbon dioxide and leaves calcium carbonate behind. Over thousands of years it built up into dams. Band-e Amir became Afghanistan's first national park in 2009.
- When
- Told for centuries
- Where
- Band-e Amir, Bamyan, Afghanistan
- Witnesses
- Pilgrims, travellers and geologists
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.