NOT YOUR FATHER'S TALIBAN:

"It's inborn in humans that they attach value to their history," said Rahmatullah, 65, after intently examining a collection of 2,000-year-old swords.

"I wanted to know more about the history of my country. It has a special place in my heart".

The museum reopened in late November with permission from the Taliban's new ministry of information and culture, around three months after the Islamists retook power and ended their two-decade insurgency.

Some artefacts on open display are fundamentally at odds with the Taliban's radical ideology, including pottery collections featuring images of animals and humans.

During their first 1996-2001 rule, Taliban fighters destroyed items including statues at the museum, while tens of thousands of items were looted and never recovered.

In that period, the Islamists also blew up 1,500-year-old giant statues of the Buddha in the central Bamiyan valley.

But Taliban fighters now guard the museum and its treasures from potential attack by Islamic State insurgents.

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