Mazar-e-Sharif 

The name means "the holy graveyard" and is thus named due to the pilgrimage site at the very heart of the city which commemorates the burial place of Ali, the fourth Caliph of Islam.  The shrine, focus of pilgrimage for Afghans from all corners of the country, sits in the center of a giant square, which is lined by every manner of shops imaginable.  Mazar today is as much about booming business and trade as it is about pilgrimage, and you will see the collision of modernity and tradition most starkly in Mazar.  Horses, camels and donkeys share the wide roads with trucks, buses and 4x4 vehicles.  The desert wind pushes back the white burqas to reveal high heals and shiny dresses.  Turbaned carpet sellers talk heated on cell phones. 
Mazār-i Sharīf is the fourth largest city of Afghanistan, with population of 300,600 people (2006 estimate). It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by roads to Kabul in the south-east, Herat to the west and Uzbekistan to the north. Mazari Sharif means "Noble Shrine," a reference to the large, blue-tiled sanctuary and mosque in the center of the city. Most Afghans (both Shia and Sunni) believe that the site of the tomb of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin is in Mazari Sharif. The dominant language in Mazari Sharif is Dari-Persian with a Tajik Majority population. The city is a major tourist attraction because of its fabulous Muslim and Hellenistic archeological sites. In July 2006, the discovery of new Hellenistic remains was announced.
Mazari Sharif owes its existence to a dream. At the beginning of the 1100s, a local mullah had a dream in which Ali bin Talib, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law and one of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs appeared to reveal that he had been secretly buried near the city of Balkh. After investigation, the Seljuk sultan Sanjar ordered a shrine to be built on the spot, where it stood until its destruction by Genghis Khan. Although later rebuilt, Mazar stood in the shadow of its neighbor Balkh, until that city was abandoned in 1866 for health reasons.