Kabul lies in a basin on the southern side of the Hindu Kush, at an average elevation of about 1,800 metres. Here the Kabul River cuts through a rocky range between two ridges, Koh-e Asmai and Koh-e Sher Darwaza, and the Bala Hissar fortress at the eastern end of Sher Darwaza long guarded the town.
The site is a natural crossroads. Passes lead north over the Hindu Kush towards Central Asia, while the river valley opens east towards the Khyber Pass and India, along the ancient ‘old road to India’. The Mughal founder Babur captured Kabul in 1504 and loved it, and his garden, Bagh-e Babur, became his resting place. In the 1770s Timur Shah Durrani moved the capital of the Afghan state to Kabul.
Since 2002 the Aga Khan Trust for Culture has restored Bagh-e Babur, with its water channels, terraces and pavilions, as well as the 18th-century mausoleum of Timur Shah and historic houses in the old city.