Few countries in the world have been invaded as often, and by so many other nations, as Afghanistan, where many soldiers and civilians of various nationalities are buried in Kabul's Kabre Gora, or "graveyard of foreigners".
There is an odd kink in Martyrs Road in the Sherpur district of Kabul. It forces the traffic - from cyclists to rattling yellow taxis - to slow down suddenly, in what looks almost like a mark of respect.
But no-one looks up at the weathered metal sign on the wall on the bend which reads "British Cemetery".
It is a high wall. From outside you cannot see in and, once inside, it muffles the sounds of Kabul.
When you pass through the wooden gates into the small, tree-lined graveyard you have a feeling of entering another world - and another era.
The cemetery was created in the 19th Century, during Britain's past wars in Afghanistan.
Some 160 soldiers from that period are thought to be buried here, although that is just a small fraction of the casualties from successive battles fought to keep Kabul in British hands.
They first took the city in 1839 with little trouble.
It was a straight land-grab to stop Russia getting in first. But an Afghan uprising soon began and, two years later, the British were forced out in a now well-chronicled disaster.
Nearly the entire Kabul garrison of 16,000 British and Indian troops, their families and servants, were slaughtered by Afghan forces as they tried to retreat.
British troops marched back in the same year, razing much of Kabul to the ground in revenge.
But they tried to learn their lesson - that while invading may be relatively simple, occupying Afghanistan was impossibly costly - and initially they adopted a hands-off approach from their bastions in British India.
