Stephan Goss Photography

Soviet artillery relics stand sentinel on a hill, overlooking the Ghazni countryside—a silent witness to a war long past.

Kabul unfolds below from Wazir Akbar Khan Park, its landscape still marred by barbed wire.

A juice vendor sets up shop against the backdrop of the formidable walls that once demarcated the American Green Zone.

A graveyard sprawls before a deserted U.S. military base now commandeered by the Taliban in Kandahar.

Against the backdrop of the ancient Bahram Shah Minaret in Ghazni, a destroyed Soviet troop carrier lies.

A field strewn with the husks of Russian armor paints a somber scene before the Bahram Shah Minaret.

My fixers capture moments atop a dead and rusted Russian tank at Ghazni’s historic fort, a structure that bears the scars of Russian occupation.

Amidst the relics of conflict, life goes on—a watermelon vendor sets up shop in the shadow of a dormant Russian artillery piece in Kandahar.