Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, lies in a high basin on the Kabul River, ringed by mountains: the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush rise to the north and east, and the Paghman range to the west. The floor of the basin sits at about 1,800 metres. The old city grew where the river cuts through a gap between two ridges, Koh-e Asmai and Koh-e Sher Darwaza, a sheltered spot that has long watched over the roads crossing the mountains between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
A crossroads in the mountains
People have lived in the Kabul basin since antiquity. For centuries its main town was Kapisa, to the north, where the Kushan kings kept a summer residence in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. The geographer Ptolemy recorded a town called Kaboura in the region, probably an early form of the local name, but the city’s name in its settled form appears only in the 8th century CE. Over time the urban centre moved south, to the easily defended site between the two ridges where Kabul stands today.
The basin has always been a meeting point of routes. From the north, travellers crossed the Salang pass or, in winter, took the lower road through Bamyan and the Shibar pass. To the east, the narrow gorge of Tang-e Gharu and the Lataband pass lead down towards Jalalabad.
Babur’s city of gardens
Kabul was a small town until the early 16th century, when Zahir al-Din Babur (1483–1530), founder of the Mughal dynasty, made it his capital. Under the early Mughals it became a prosperous, orderly city, admired for its covered bazaar, the Char Chatta, built by the governor Ali Mardan Khan between 1641 and 1652. Chroniclers of the time named and described many gardens along the river.
Babur was buried in a terraced garden on the slopes of Sher Darwaza, now known as Bagh-e Babur. His descendant Shah Jahan later built a small white marble mosque there in his honour. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture began restoring the 11-hectare garden in 2003, reviving its water channels, planted terraces and pavilions; it describes the site as the first Mughal “paradise garden”, forerunner of many imperial gardens in South Asia. Today it welcomes more than 400,000 visitors a year.
Capital of a kingdom
In the 1770s, under Timur Shah (r. 1772–93), Kabul succeeded Kandahar as capital of the kingdom founded by his father, Ahmad Shah Durrani. Timur Shah’s domed mausoleum still stands in a busy commercial district in the centre of the city, and was conserved from 2003 onwards.
In the 19th century the walled city lay on the right bank of the river. The Bala Hissar citadel stood on a spur of Sher Darwaza to the east, the Chindawol quarter lay to the west, and between them ran a tangle of narrow lanes, courtyard houses of mud and straw, bazaars and caravanserais. Tajiks, Pashtuns and Hindus lived and traded here, alongside small Armenian and Jewish communities. Wars with Britain took a heavy toll: the Char Chatta bazaar was destroyed in 1842, and much of the Bala Hissar in 1879.
Seasons, orchards and old quarters
Kabul’s altitude softens the dryness usual at its latitude. Summers are short and hot, with average temperatures usually above 30 °C and sharp drops at night; most rain falls in spring and early summer, and winters have traditionally brought heavy snow. North of the city, the fertile Koh Daman and Shomali plain have long been called the “Garden of Kabul”, known for grapes, apricots, peaches and walnuts.
The old neighbourhoods still carry the city’s memory. In Asheqan wa Arefan, named after one of Kabul’s revered shrines, conservation work has restored 11 homes and 15 historic public buildings, while across the river the quarter of Murad Khani recalls Sardar Murad Khan, who built the capital of the Sadozai kings.
