High on a hill overlooking the city of Kabul,

sets a hotel that once hosted Afghanistan's beautiful people.

The rich, the brightest, the models, the actors, the politicians, they lounged by the pool,

the diplomats and the journalists sipped cocktail swapping intel in the gilded bar under the chandeliers.

You can book a room to stay in there now, but just before you do, you should know one or two things.

Those chandeliers are now laden with dust. No power lights up the bulbs. The figures that now sit beneath them are rather different. They're not movie stars.

They are Taliban fighters turned government officials.

When the Taliban took control Afghanistan in August 2021, they took control of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, too. It's now where they meet.

They make plans. They relax on the patio. They do not drink alcoholic beverage or listen to music,

of course. Many of the bedrooms are in a state of decay, broken glass, collapsed ceilings,

spent rounds, shells on the floor.

For a couple of generations, it's been true that whoever's are the custodian in the country

is custodian of that hotel.

And the story of that once grand establishment mirrors that country's recent history.

From a sort of golden age of stability, of prosperity, of entertainment to the 1970s, to the communism

of the 80s, the Taliban of the 90s, the Western supported governments of the naughties. Under all

those changing rulers the last four decades, the hotel has reflected all of those different regimes.

Now, during all those different regimes over the past four decades, the hotel has also welcomed

one very important returning guest, the BBC's chief correspondent, Leis Ducet, global legend.

The journalist, the organisation, calls on to cover all the major events in global history

from the Arab Spring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

She first went to Afghanistan in 1988.

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