Kabul travel guide — Kabul tourism and travel information

Kabul travel guide

about Kabul

Kabul (Käbool, Kbool) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan with a population variously estimated at 2 to 4 million. It is an economic and cultural center strategically situated in a narrow valley along the Kabul River, high in the mountains before the Khyber Pass. Kabul is linked with the Tajikistan border via a tunnel under the Hindu Kush Mountains. Its main products include ordnance, cloth, furniture, and beet sugar, though continual warfare since 1979 has limited the economic productivity of the city. Kabul remains one of the most mined cities in the world.

Kabul history

The first records of Kabul are a mention of the Kubha River around 1200BC and reference to a settlement named Kabura by the Persian Achaemenids around 300BC. The Bactrians founded the town of Parapamisidae near Kabul, but it was later ceded to the Mauryans in the first century. Kabul then fell under the sway of the Kushans, though they placed their summer capital at Bagram, north of Kabul. The city then came under Hindu control until its capture by the Arabs in 664. Over the next 600 years, the city was successively controlled by the Samanids of Bokhara, the Ghaznavid Empire, and the Ghorids of Bamiyan.

In the 13th century the Mongol horde passed through. In the next century, Kabul rose again as a trading center under the kingdom of Timur, who married a in to the local ruling family. As Timurid power waned, the city was captured in 1504 and made into a capital by Babur and subsequent Mughal rulers. Haidar, an Indian poet that visited at the time wrote "Dine and drink in Kabul: it is mountain, desert, city, river and all else."

Nadir Shah of Persia captured it in 1738. During the mid 18th century Amid Shah Durrani rose to power in Afghanistan, re-asserting Afghan rule. In 1772, his son Timur Shah inherited power and made Kabul the capital, even as their empire began to crumble.

In 1826 the throne was claimed by Dost Mohammed, but it was taken by the British army in 1839, who installed the unpopular puppet Shah Shuja. 1841 saw a local uprising massacre both the British mission and the British army on their subsequent retreat to Jalalabad. In 1842 the British returned, plundering Bala Hissar in revenge before reterating to India. Dost Mohammed returned to the throne.

The British returned in 1878 as the city was under Sher Ali Khan's rule, but their residents were massacred again. The British army came again in 1879 under General Roberts, partially destroying Bala Hissar before retreating to India. Amir Abdur Rahman was left in control of the country.

In the early 20th century King Amanullah reigned. His reforms included electricity and schooling for girls. He drove a Rolls Royce, and lived in a palace at Darulaman in south-west Kabul. In 1919 Amanullah announced Afghanistan's independence from Id Gah Mosque, after the Third Anglo-Afghan War. In 1928, Bacha-i-Saqao, a Tajik rebel, deposed Amanullah and terrorised Kabul for nine months until Nadir Shah, Amanullah's half-brother, restored rule.

In 1932 Kabul University opened, and the 1950s saw the streets of the city paved with Russian assistance.

After 1940, the city began to grow as an industrial center.

In the 1960s, Kabul developed a cosmopolitan mood. The first Marks and Spencer store in Central Asia was built there, and Kabul Zoo was inaugurated in 1967. The Zoo was maintained with the help of visiting German Zoologists, and focused on Afghan fauna.

In 1975 an east-west electric trolley-bus system provided public transportation across the city. The system was built with assistance from Czechoslovakia.

After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S.S.R. occupied the city on December 23, 1979, turning it into their command center during the 10-year conflict between the Soviet-allied government and the mujahedeen rebels. The American embassy in Kabul was closed on January 30, 1989. Kabul fell into guerrilla hands after the 1992 collapse of the Mohammad Najibullah government. As these forces divided into rival warring factions, the city increasingly suffered. In December the last of the 86 trolley buses in the city came to a halt due to the conflict. At that time a system of 800 public buses continued to provided transportation to the population of about one million.

At this time, Burhannudin Rabbani's Jamiat-e Islami (Islamic Council of Afghanistan) held power but the nominal prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami began a five year shelling of the city from its south, which lasted until 1996. Kabul was factionalised, and fighting continued between Jamiat-e Islami, Dostum and the Hazara Hezb-e Wahdat. Tens of thousands of civilians were killed and more fled as refugees.

Kabul was captured by the Taliban in September, 1996, publicly lynching ex-president Najibullah, repressing the city's dangerously literate populace and effectively moving the capital to Kandahar.

The Taliban abandoned the city on November 12, 2001 due to extensive American bombing and Kabul came under the control of the Northern Alliance. After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, it became the capital of the Afghan Transitional Administration.

The city is served by Kabul International Airport.

Near cities to Kabul

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