Kabul کابل
Municipality
Left-to-right from top: Skyline in 2020, the Arg, Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque, Sakhi Shrine, modern Kabul, skyline in 2021
Seal
Nickname:  Paris of Central Asia[1][2]
Kabul Show map of Afghanistan Kabul Show map of Asia
Coordinates: 34°31′31″N 69°10′42″E / 34.52528°N 69.17833°E / 34.52528; 69.17833
Country	Afghanistan
Province	Kabul
No. of districts	22
No. of Gozars	630
Capital formation	1776[4]
Government
• Type	Municipality
• Mayor	Hamdullah Nomani
• Deputy Mayor	Maulvi Abdul Rashid[5]
Area
• Total	1,028.24 km2 (397.01 sq mi)
• Land	1,028.24 km2 (397.01 sq mi)
• Water	0 km2 (0 sq mi)
Elevation	1,791 m (5,876 ft)
Population  (2023)
• Total	4.954 million[3]
Demonyms	Kabuli
Time zone	UTC+4:30 (Afghanistan Standard Time)
Postal code	10XX
Area code	(+93) 20
Climate	BSk
Website	km.gov.af

Kabul^[a] is the capital city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into 22 municipal districts. In 2023 its population was estimated to be 4.95 million people.^[3] In contemporary times, Kabul has served as Afghanistan's political, cultural and economical center.^[9] Rapid urbanisation has made it the country's primate city and the 75th-largest city in the world.^[10]

The modern-day city of Kabul is located high in a narrow valley in the Hindu Kush mountain range, and is bounded by the Kabul River. At an elevation of 1,790 metres (5,873 ft), it is one of the highest capital cities in the world. The center of the city contains its old neighborhoods, including the areas of Khashti Bridge, Khabgah, Kahforoshi, Deh-Afghanan, Chandavel, Shorbazar, Saraji, Zana-Khan and Baghe Alimardan.^[11]

Kabul is said to be over 3,500 years old, and was mentioned at the time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Located at a crossroads in Asia—roughly halfway between Istanbul, Turkey, in the west and Hanoi, Vietnam, in the east—the city is situated in a strategic location along the trade routes of Central Asia and South Asia. It was a key destination on the ancient Silk Road^[12] and was traditionally seen as the meeting point between Tartary, India and Persia.^[13] Over the centuries Kabul has been under the rule of other dynasties and empires, including the Seleucids, the Mauryans, the Kushans, the Hindu Shahis, Western Turks, the Turk Shahis, the Samanids, the Khwarazmians, the Timurids, the Mongols and the Arman Rayamajhis.

In the 16th century, the Mughal Empire used Kabul as a summer capital, during which time it prospered and increased in significance.^[13] It briefly came under the control of the Afsharids following Nader Shah's invasion of India, until finally coming under local rule by the Afghan Empire in 1747.^[14] Kabul became the capital of Afghanistan in 1776 during the reign of Timur Shah Durrani (a son of Ahmad Shah Durrani).^[4] In the 19th century the city was occupied by the British: after establishing foreign relations and agreements, they withdrew from Afghanistan and returned to British India.

Kabul is known for its historical gardens, bazaars, and palaces^[15][16][17] such as the Gardens of Babur, Darul Aman Palace and the Arg. In the second half of the 20th century, the city became a stop on the hippie trail undertaken by many Europeans^[18][19][20] and gained the nickname "Paris of Central Asia".^[1][2][21] This period of tranquility ended in 1978 with the Saur Revolution, and the subsequent Soviet military intervention in 1979 which sparked a 10-year Soviet–Afghan War. The 1990s were marked by civil wars between splinter factions of the disbanded Afghan mujahideen which destroyed much of the city.^[22] In 1996, Kabul was captured by the Taliban after four years of intermittent fighting. The Taliban-ruled city fell to the United States after the American-led invasion of Afghanistan which followed the September 11 attacks in the US in 2001. In 2021, Kabul was re-occupied by the Taliban following the withdrawal of American-led military forces from Afghanistan.

Toponymy and etymology

Kabul is also spelled as Cabool, Cabol, Kabol, or Cabul.^{[citation needed]}

Kabul was known by different names throughout its history.^[23] Its meaning is unknown, but "certainly pre-dates the advent of Islam when it was an important centre on the route between India and the Hellenic world".^[24] In Sanskrit, it was known as Kubha, whereas Greek authors of classical antiquity referred to it as Kophen, Kophes or Koa.^[23] The Chinese traveler Xuanzang (fl. 7th century CE) recorded the city as Kaofu (高附).^[23] The name "Kabul" was first applied to the Kabul river before being applied to the area situated between the Hindu Kush and Sindh (present-day Pakistan).^[23][24] This area was also known as Kabulistan.^[23] Alexander Cunningham (died 1893) noted in the 19th century that Kaofu, as recorded by the Chinese was in all likelihood the name of "one of the five Yuchi or Tukhari tribes".^[23] Cunningam added that this tribe gave its name to the city after it was occupied by them in the 2nd century BCE.^[23] This "supposition seems likely" as the Afghan historian Mir Ghulam Mohammad Ghobar (1898–1978) wrote that in the Avesta (sacred book of Zoroastrianism), Kabul was known as Vaekereta, whereas the Greeks of antiquity referred to it as Ortospana ("High Place"), which corresponds to the Sanskrit word Urddhastana, which was applied to Kabul.^[23] The Greek geographer Ptolemy (died c. 170 CE) recorded Kabul as Καβουρα (Kabura).^[23]

According to a legend, one could find a lake in Kabul, in the middle of which the so-called "Island of Happiness" could be found, where a joyous family of musicians lived.^[23] According to this same legend, the island became accessible by the order of a king through the construction of a bridge (i.e. "pul" in Persian) made out of straw (i.e. "kah" in Persian).^[23] According to this legend the name Kabul was thus formed as a result of these two words combined, i.e. kah + pul.^[23] The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names argues that the "suggestion that the name is derived from the Arabic root qbl 'meeting' or 'receiving' is unlikely".^[24]

It remains unknown when the name "Kabul" was first applied to the city.^[23] It "came into prominence" following the destruction of Kapisa and other cities in what is present-day Afghanistan by Genghis Khan (c. 1162–1227) in the thirteenth century.^[23] The centrality of the city within the region, as well as its cultural importance as a nexus of ethnic groups in the region, caused Kabul to become known as the Paris of Central Asia in the late 20th century.

History

Antiquity

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The origin of Kabul, who built it and when, is largely unknown.^[25] The Hindu Rigveda, composed between 2000 and 1500 BC and one of the four canonical texts of Hinduism, and the Avesta, the primary canon of texts of Zoroastrianism, refer to the Kabul River and to a settlement called Kubha.^[25][26]

The Kabul valley was part of the Median Empire (c. 678–549 BC).^[27] In 549 BC, the Median Empire was annexed by Cyrus The Great and Kabul became part the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550–330 BC).^[28] During that period, Kabul became a center of learning for Zoroastrianism, followed by Buddhism and Hinduism.^[29] An inscription on Darius the Great's tombstone lists Kabul as one of the 29 countries of the Achaemenid Empire.^[26]

When Alexander annexed the Achaemenid Empire, the Kabul region came under his control.^[30] After his death, his empire was seized by his general Seleucus, becoming part of the Seleucid Empire. In 305 BCE, the Seleucid Empire was extended to the Indus River which led to friction with the neighbouring Mauryan Empire.^[31]

During the Mauryan period, trade flourished because of uniform weights and measures. Irrigation facilities for public use were developed leading to an increased harvest of crops. People were also employed as artisans, jewellers, and carpenters.^[32]

The Greco-Bactrians took control of Kabul from the Mauryans in the early 2nd century BC, then lost the city to their subordinates in the Indo-Greek Kingdom around the mid-2nd century BC. Buddhism was greatly patronised by these rulers and the majority of people of the city were adherents of the religion.^[33] Indo-Scythians expelled the Indo-Greeks by the mid 1st century BC, but lost the city to the Kushan Empire about 100 years later.^[34][35]

It is mentioned as Kophes or Kophene in some classical writings. Hsuan Tsang refers to the city as Kaofu^[36] in the 7th century AD, which is the appellation of one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi who had migrated from across the Hindu Kush into the Kabul valley around the beginning of the Christian era.^[37] It was conquered by Kushan Emperor Kujula Kadphises in about 45 AD and remained Kushan territory until at least the 3rd century AD.^[38][39] The Kushans were Indo-European-speaking peoples based in Bactria.^[40]

Around 230 AD, the Kushans were defeated by the Sassanid Empire and replaced by Sassanid vassals known as the Indo-Sassanids. During the Sassanian period, the city was referred to as "Kapul" in Pahlavi scripts.^[26] Kapol in the Persian language means Royal (ka) Bridge (pol), which is due to the main bridge on the Kabul River that connected the east and west of the city. In 420 AD, the Indo-Sassanids were driven out of Afghanistan by the Xionite tribe known as the Kidarites, who were then replaced in the 460s by the Hephthalites. It became part of the surviving Turk Shahi Kingdom of Kapisa, also known as Kabul-Shahan.^[41] According to Táríkhu-l Hind by Al-Biruni, Kabul was governed by princes of Turkic lineage.^[41]|Abu Rayhan Biruni|978–1048 AD}} It was briefly held by the Tibetan Empire between 801 and 815.

The Jewish community

There has been an ancient Jewish community in Kabul. The 12th century Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi wrote down his observations of a Jewish quarter in Kabul.^[42]

Islamisation and Mongol invasion

The Islamic conquest reached modern-day Afghanistan in 642 AD, at a time when Kabul was independent.^[43] Until then, Kabul was considered politically and culturally part of the Indian world.^[44] A number of failed expeditions were made to Islamise the region. In one of them, Abdur Rahman bin Samara arrived in Kabul from Zaranj in the late 600s and converted 12,000 inhabitants to Islam before abandoning the city. Muslims were a minority until Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar of Zaranj conquered Kabul in 870 from the Hindu Shahis and established the first Islamic dynasty in the region. It was reported that the rulers of Kabul were Muslims with non-Muslims living close by. Iranian traveller and geographer Istakhri described it in 921:

Kábul has a castle celebrated for its strength, accessible only by one road. In it there are Musulmáns, and it has a town, in which are infidels from Hind.^[45]

Over the following centuries, the city was successively controlled by the Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Khwarazmshahs, Qarlughids, and Khaljis. In the 13th century, the invading Mongols caused major destruction in the region. Report of a massacre in the close by Bamiyan is recorded around this period, where the entire population of the valley was annihilated by the Mongol troops as revenge for the death of Genghis Khan's grandson. As a result, many natives of Afghanistan fled south toward the Indian subcontinent where some established dynasties in Delhi. The Chagatai Khanate and Kartids were vassals of Ilkhanate until the dissolution of the latter in 1335.

Following the era of the Khalji dynasty in 1333, the famous Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta was visiting Kabul and wrote:

We travelled on to Kabul, formerly a vast town, the site of which is now occupied by a village inhabited by a tribe of Persians called Afghans. They hold mountains and defiles and possess considerable strength, and are mostly highwaymen. Their principal mountain is called Kuh Sulayman.^[46]

Timurid and Mughal era

In the 14th century, Kabul became a major trading centre under the kingdom of Timur (Tamerlane). In 1504, the city fell to Babur from the north and made into his headquarters, which became one of the principal cities of his later Mughal Empire. In 1525, Babur described Kabulistan in his memoirs by writing that:

There are many differing tribes in the Kābul country; in its dales and plains are Turks and clansmen and 'Arabs; and in its town and in many villages, Sārts; out in the districts and also in villages are the Pashāi, Parājī, Tājik, Bīrkī and Afghān tribes. In the western mountains are the Hazāra and Nikdīrī tribes, some of whom speak the Mughūlī tongue. In the north-eastern mountains are the places of the Kāfirs, such as Kitūr and Gibrik. To the south are the places of the Afghān tribes.^[47]

Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, a poet from Hindustan who visited at the time wrote: "Dine and drink in Kabul: it is mountain, desert, city, river and all else." It was from here that Babur began his 1526 conquest of Hindustan, which was ruled by the Afghan Lodi dynasty and began east of the Indus River in what is present-day Pakistan. Babur loved Kabul due to the fact that he lived in it for 20 years and the people were loyal to him, including the weather that he was used to. His wish to be buried in Kabul was finally granted. The inscription on his tomb contains the famous Persian couplet, which states:

اگرفردوس روی زمین است همین است و همین است و همین است

Transliteration:

Agar fardus rui zamayn ast', hameen ast', o hameen ast', o hameen ast'.

(If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, and it is this, and it is this!)^[48]

Kabul remained in Mughal control for the next 200 years.^[49] Though Mughal power became centred within the Indian subcontinent, Kabul retained importance as a frontier city for the empire; Abul Fazl, Emperor Akbar's chronicler, described it as one of the two gates to Hindustan (the other being Kandahar).^[50] As part of administrative reforms under Akbar, the city was made capital of the eponymous Mughal province, Kabul Subah.^[51] Under Mughal governance, Kabul became a prosperous urban centre, endowed with bazaars such as the non-extant Char Chatta.^[49] For the first time in its history, Kabul served as a mint centre, producing gold and silver Mughal coins up to the reign of Alamgir II.^[52] It acted as a military base for Shah Jahan's campaigns in Balkh and Badakhshan. Kabul was also a recreational retreat for the Mughals, who hunted here and constructed several gardens. Most of the Mughals' architectural contributions to the city (such as gardens, fortifications, and mosques) have not survived.^[49][53] During this time, the population was about 60,000.^[13]

Under later Mughal Emperors, Kabul became neglected.^[49] The empire lost the city when it was captured in 1738 by Nader Shah, who was en route to invade the Indian subcontinent.^[52]

Durrani and Barakzai dynasties

Nine years after Nader Shah and his forces invaded and occupied the city as part of the more easternmost parts of his Empire, he was assassinated by his own officers, causing its rapid disintegration. Ahmad Shah Durrani, commander of 4,000 Abdali Afghans, asserted Pashtun rule in 1747 and further expanded his new Afghan Empire. His ascension to power marked the beginning of Afghanistan. By this time, Kabul had lost its status as a metropolitan city, and its population had decreased to 10,000.^[54] Interest in the city was renewed when Ahmad Shah's son Timur Shah Durrani, after inheriting power, transferred the capital of the Durrani Empire from Kandahar to Kabul in 1776.^[4][49] Kabul experienced considerable urban development during the reigns of Timur Shah and his successor Zaman Shah; several religious and public buildings were constructed, and diverse groups of Sufis, jurists, and literary families were encouraged to settle the city through land grants and stipends.^[55][49] Kabul's first visitor from Europe was Englishman George Forster, who described 18th-century Kabul as "the best and cleanest city in Asia".^[56]

In 1826, the kingdom was claimed by Dost Mohammad Khan, but in 1839 Shujah Shah Durrani was re-installed with the help of the British Empire during the First Anglo-Afghan War. In 1841 a local uprising resulted in the killing of the British resident and loss of mission in Kabul and the 1842 retreat from Kabul to Jalalabad, in which 4,500 regular British troops and 14,000 civilians were killed by Afghan tribesmen. In 1842 the British returned to Kabul, demolishing the city's main bazaar in revenge during the Kabul Expedition (1842) before returning to British India (now Pakistan). Akbar Khan took to the throne from 1842 to 1845 and was followed by Dost Mohammad Khan.^[57]

The Second Anglo-Afghan War broke out in 1879 when Kabul was under Sher Ali Khan's rule, as the Afghan king initially refused to accept British diplomatic missions and later the British residents were again massacred. During the war, Bala Hissar was partially destroyed by a fire and an explosion.^[58]

20th century

In Kabul, an established bazaar city, leather and textile industries developed by 1916.^[59] The majority of the population was concentrated on the south side of the river.

The city was modernised throughout the regime of King Habibullah Khan, with the introduction of electricity, telephone, and a postal service.^[60] The first modern high school, Habibia, was established in 1903. In 1919, after the Third Anglo-Afghan War, King Amanullah Khan announced Afghanistan's independence in foreign affairs at Eidgah Mosque in Kabul. Amanullah was reform-minded and he had a plan to build a new capital city on land 6 km from Kabul. This area, named Darulaman, consisted of the famous Darul Aman Palace, where he later resided. Many educational institutions were founded in Kabul during the 1920s. In 1929 King Amanullah left Kabul after a local uprising orchestrated by Habibullah Kalakani, but he was imprisoned and executed after nine months in power by King Nader Khan. Three years later, in 1933, the new king was assassinated during an award ceremony in a school in Kabul. The throne was left to his 19-year-old son, Zahir Shah, who became the last King of Afghanistan. Unlike Amanullah Khan, Nader Khan and Zahir Shah had no plans to create a new capital city, and thus Kabul remained the country's seat of government.

During the inter-war period, France and Germany helped to develop the country and maintained high schools and lycees in the capital, providing education for the children of the city's elite families.^[61] Kabul University opened in 1932, and by the 1960s the majority of teachers were western educated Afghans^[62] and the majority of instructors at the university had degrees from Western universities.^[62]

Kabul's only railway service, the Kabul–Darulaman Tramway, operated for six years from 1923 to 1929.^[63] When Zahir Shah took power in 1933, Kabul had the only 10 kilometers (6 miles) of rail and the country had few internal telegraphs, phone lines or roads. Zahir turned to the Japanese, Germans and Italians for help in developing a modern transportation and communications network.^[64] A radio tower built in Kabul by the Germans in 1937 provided communication with outlying villages.^[65] A national bank and state cartels were organised to allow for economic modernisation.^[66] Textile mills, power plants, carpet and furniture factories were built in Kabul, providing much-needed manufacturing and infrastructure.^[66]

During the 1940s and 1950s, urbanisation accelerated and the built-up area was increased in size to 68 km² by 1962, an almost fourteen-fold increase since 1925.^[59] The Serena Hotel opened in 1945 as the first Western-style luxury hotel. In the 1950s, under the premiership of Mohammad Daoud Khan, foreign investment and development increased. In 1955, the Soviet Union forwarded $100 million in credit to Afghanistan which financed public transportation, airports, a cement factory,a mechanised bakery, a five-lane highway from Kabul to the Soviet border and dams, including the Salang Pass to the north of Kabul.^[67] During the 1960s, Soviet-style microrayon housing estates were built, containing sixty blocks. The government also built many ministry buildings in the brutalist architecture style.^[68] In the 1960s the first Marks & Spencer store in Central Asia was built in the city. Kabul Zoo was inaugurated in 1967, which was maintained with the help of visiting German zoologists. During this time, Kabul experimented with liberalisation, notably the loosening of restrictions on speech and assembly, which led to student politics in the capital and demonstrations by Socialist, Maoist, liberal or Islamist factions.^[69]

Foreigners flocked to Kabul as the nation's tourism industry expanded. To accompany the city's new-found tourism, western-style accommodations were opened in the 1960s, notably the Spinzar Hotel.^[70] Western, American and Japanese tourists visited the city's attractions^[71] including Chicken Street^[72] and the National Museum that contained some of Asia's finest cultural artifacts.^[73] Lonely Planet called it an upcoming "tourist trap" in 1973.^[74] Pakistanis visited to watch Indian movies that were banned in their own country.^[70] Kabul was nicknamed the Paris of Central Asia.^[1][2] According to J. Bruce Amstutz, an American diplomat in Kabul:

Kabul was a pleasant city Though poor economically, it was spared the eyesore slums so visible in other Asian cities. The Afghans themselves were an imposing people, the men tall and self-assured and the women attractive.^[72]

Until the late 1970s, Kabul was a stop on the Hippie trail from Bamyan to the west towards Peshawar.^[75] The city was known for its street sales of hashish and became a major attraction for western hippies.^[18]

Occupations wars and Taliban Regime (1996–2001)

On 28 April 1978, President Daoud and most of his family were assassinated in Kabul's Presidential Palace in what is called the Saur Revolution. Pro-Soviet PDPA under Nur Muhammad Taraki seized power and slowly began to institute reforms.^[76] Private businesses were nationalised in the Soviet manner.^[77] Education was modified into the Soviet model, with lessons focusing on teaching Russian, Marxism–Leninism and learning of other countries belonging to the Soviet bloc.^[77]

Amid growing internal chaos and heightened cold war tensions, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, was kidnapped on his way to work at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on 14 February 1979 and killed during a rescue attempt at the Serena Hotel. There were conflicting reports of who abducted Dubs and what demands were made for his release. Several senior Soviet officials were in the lobby of the hotel during a standoff with the kidnappers, who were holding Dubs in room 117.^[78][79] Afghan police, acting on the advice of Soviet advisors and over the objections of U.S. officials, launched a rescue attempt, during which Dubs was shot in the head from a distance of six inches and killed.^[80] Many questions about the killing remain unanswered.

On 24 December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and Kabul was heavily occupied by Soviet Armed Forces. In Pakistan, Director-General of the ISI Akhtar Abdur Rahman advocated for the idea of covert operation in Afghanistan by arming Islamic extremists who formed the mujahideen.^[81] General Rahman was heard loudly saying: "Kabul must burn! Kabul must burn!",^[82] and mastered the idea of proxy war in Afghanistan.^[81] Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq authorised this operation under General Rahman, which was later merged with Operation Cyclone, a programme funded by the United States and carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Soviets turned the city of Kabul into their command centre during the Soviet–Afghan War, and while fighting was mostly taking place in the countryside, Kabul was widely disturbed. Political crime and guerrilla attacks on military and government targets were common, and the sound of gunfire became commonplace at night in the outskirts. Large numbers of PDPA party members and Soviet troops were kidnapped or assassinated, sometimes in broad daylight, with acts of terrorism committed by civilians, anti-regime militias and also Khalqists. By July 1980, as many as twelve party members were being assassinated on a daily basis, and the Soviet Army stopped patrolling the city in January 1981. A major uprising against the Soviet presence broke out in Kabul in February 1980 in what is called the 3 Hut uprising. It led to a night curfew in the city that would remain in place for seven years.^[83] The Soviet Embassy also, was attacked four times with arms fire in the first five years of the war. A Western correspondent revisiting Kabul in December 1983 after a year, said that the city was "converted into a fortress bristling with weapons".^[84] Contrastingly, that same year American diplomat Charles Dunbar commented that the Soviet troops' presence was "surprisingly modest",^[85] and an author in a 1983 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists article thought that the Soviet soldiers had a "friendly" atmosphere.^[86]

The city's population increased from around 500,000 in 1978 to 1.5 million in 1988.^[87] The large influx were mostly internal refugees who fled other parts of the country for safety in Kabul. During this time, women made up 40% of the workforce.^[88] Soviet men and women were very common in the city's shopping roads, with the large availability of Western products.^[85] Most Soviet civilians (numbering between 8,000 and 10,000) lived in the northeastern Soviet-style Mikrorayon (microraion) housing complex that was surrounded by barbed-wire and armed tanks. They sometimes received abuse from anti-Soviet civilians on the streets.^[89] The mujahideen rebels managed to strike at the city a few times—on 9 October 1987, a car bomb planted by a mujahideen group killed 27 people, and on 27 April 1988, in celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Saur Revolution, a truck bomb killed six people.^[90]

After the fall of Mohammad Najibullah's^[91] government in April 1992, different mujahideen factions entered the city and formed a government under the Peshawar Accords, but Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's party refused to sign the accords and started shelling the city for power, which soon escalated into a full-scale conflict. This marked the start of a dark period of the city: at least 30,000 civilians were killed in a period known locally as the "Kabul Wars."^[92] About 80 percent of the city was devastated and destroyed by 1996.^[93][94] The old city and western areas were among the worst-hit. A New York Times analyst said in 1996 that the city was more devastated than Sarajevo, which was similarly damaged during the Bosnian War at the time.^[95]

The city suffered heavily under a bombardment campaign between rival militias which intensified during the summer of 1992. Its geographic location in a narrow valley made it an easy target from rockets fired by militias who based themselves in the surrounding mountains.^[96] Within two years' time, the majority of infrastructure was destroyed, a massive exodus of the population left to the countryside or abroad, and electricity and water was completely out. In late 1994, bombardment of the capital came to a temporary halt.^[97][98][99] These forces took steps to restore law and order. Courts started to work again, convicting individuals inside government troops who had committed crimes.^[100] On 27 September 1996, the hardline Taliban militia seized Kabul and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. They imposed a strict form of Sharia (Islamic law), restricting women from work and education,^[101] conducting amputations against common thieves, and hit-squads from the infamous "Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" watching public beatings of people.^[101]

21st century

In November 2001, the Northern Alliance captured Kabul after the Taliban had abandoned the city following an American invasion. A month later, a new government began to assemble under President Hamid Karzai. A NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was deployed in Afghanistan and many expatriate Afghans returned to the country. Kabul's population grew from about 500,000 in 2001 to over 3 million. Foreign embassies re-opened. In 2008, responsibility for security began to shift from NATO to Afghan forces.^[102] In 2001 rebuilding began^[103] and many of the city's damaged landmarks were rebuilt or restored, including the Gardens of Babur in 2005,^[104] the arch of Paghman, the Mahmoud Khan Bridge clock tower in 2013^[105] and the Taj Beg Palace in 2021.^[106] Local community efforts repaired homes and dwellings.^[107]

With an increasing population the city experienced rapid urbanisation, and many informal settlements were built.^[108] Numerous modern housing complexes were built after the late 2000s, many of them gated and secured, to serve a growing Afghan middle class.^[109] These included the Aria City (in District 10) and Golden City (District 8).^[110][111] Complexes were built out of town, such as the Omid-e-Sabz township (District 13), Qasaba/Khwaja Rawash township (District 15), and Sayed Jamaludin township (District 12).^{[112][113][114]}

A high-security "Green Zone" was formed in the centre of the city.^[115] In 2010, a series of manned checkpoints called the Ring of Steel was put into operation. Concrete blast walls appeared throughout Kabul in the 2000s.^[116]

The city continued to develop despite frequent terrorist attacks, mainly by Taliban insurgents, and Kabul was the fifth fastest-growing city in the world in 2012.^[117][118] Until August 2021, the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) were in charge of security in and around the city. Kabul was periodically the scene of deadly bombings, carried out mostly by the Taliban and its wing the Haqqani network.^{[119][120][121][122]} Government employees, soldiers and ordinary civilians were targets of attacks.^{[123][124][125][126][127]} The Afghan government called the actions of the terrorists war crimes. The deadliest attack was a truck bombing in May 2017.^[128]

The city was seized during the 2021 Taliban offensive on August 15, 2021. Under Taliban rule the city and the country experienced relative calm,^[129] although terrorist attacks continued to be committed by the regional ISIL branch.^[130]

Geography

Kabul was situated in the eastern part of the country, 1,791 meters (5,876 feet) above sea level in a narrow valley, wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains along the Kabul River. Immediately to the south of the old city are the ancient city walls and the Sher Darwaza mountain, with the Shuhadayi Salihin cemetery behind it. A bit further east is the ancient Bala Hissar fortress with the Kol-e Hasmat Khan lake behind it.

Its location has been described as a "bowl surrounded by mountains".^[131] Some of the mountains (which are called koh) include: Khair Khana-e Shamali, Khwaja Rawash, Shakhi Baran Tey, Chihil Sutun, Qurugh, Khwaja Razaq and Sher Darwaza. There are also two mountains in between urban areas to the west: Koh-e Asamai (locally known as the Television hill) and Ali Abad. Hills within the city (which are called tapa) include Bibi Mahro and Maranjan.

The Logar River flows into Kabul from the south, joining the Kabul River not far from the city centre.

The city covers an area size of 1,023 square kilometres (395 sq mi), making it by far the largest in the country. The closest foreign capital cities as the crow flies are Islamabad, Dushanbe, Tashkent, New Delhi and Bishkek. Kabul is roughly equidistant between Istanbul (western Asia) and Hanoi (eastern Asia).

Climate

Kabul has a continental, cold semi-arid climate (BSk), with precipitation concentrated in the winter (almost exclusively falling as snow) and spring months. Summers have very low humidity, providing some relief from the heat. Autumns feature warm afternoons and sharply cooler evenings. Winters are very cold by South Asian standards, with a subzero January daily average temperature of −2.3 °C (27.9 °F), mainly due to the high elevation of the city. Spring is the wettest time of the year. Sunny conditions dominate year-round, and the annual mean temperature is only 12.1 °C (53.8 °F), much lower than that of Afghanistan's other large cities.