Afghan cuisine, like the culture that has produced it, is a product of history, geography and the environment. Located at a strategic location between the East and the West, and having served as the gateway to India, the land known as Afghanistan today has always been an attractive and irresistible destination for travelers, explorers, conquerors, traders and marauders. At one time or another, one part of Afghanistan or another has been attacked, captured and held as territory by every powerful and greedy empire. Trampling of this land started with Alexander the Great, continued with the Arabs, the Mongols, Tamerlane, the Mughals of India, the Persians and the British. It continues to this date; the effects of which will not be known for many decades.