Kabul
The exact number cannot be determined but the total provincial population of Kabul is anywhere between 3.5 to almost 5 million people.
It is an economic and cultural centre, situated 5,900 feet (1,800 m) above sea level in a narrow valley, wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains along the Kabul River. The city is linked with Ghazni, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e Sharif via a circular highway that stretches across the country.
It is also the start of the main road to Jalalabad and, further on, Peshawar, Pakistan.
Kabul's main products include munitions, cloth, furniture and beet sugar, but, since 1978, a state of nearly continuous war has limited the economic productivity of the city. Economic productivity has improved since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 2001.
Kabul is over 3,000 years old, many empires have long fought over the city for its strategic location along the trade routes of Southern and Central Asia.
In 1504, Babur captured Kabul and used it as his headquarters until 1526, before his conquest of India. In 1776, Timur Shah Durrani made it the capital of modern Afghanistan. Since the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s until very recent, the city has been constantly a target of destruction by rebels or militants.
History
The city of Kabul is thought to have been established between 2000 BC and 1500 BC. In the Rig Veda (composed between 1700–1100 BC) the word "Kubhā" is mentioned, which appears to refer to the Kabul River. There is a reference to a settlement called Kabura by the Persian Achaemenids around 400 BC which may be the basis for the use of the name Kabura (Κάβουρα) by Ptolemy. Alexander the Great conquered Kabul during his conquest of the Persian Empire.
The city later became part of the Seleucid Empire before becoming part of the Mauryan Empire. The Bactrians founded the town of Paropamisade near Kabul, but it was later ceded to the Mauryans in the 1st century BC.
Kushano-Hephthalite Kingdoms in 565 AD.
According to many noted scholars, the Sanskrit name of Kabul is Kamboj. It is mentioned as Kophes or Kophene in the classical writings.
Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency 1904 maintains that the ancient name of Kabul was Kambojapura, which Ptolemy (160 AD) mentions as Kaboura (from Ka(m)bo(j)pura?). Hiuen Tsang refers to the name as Kaofu (高附), which according to J.W.
Dey and many other scholars, is equivalent to Sanskrit Kamboja (Kamboj/Kambuj). Kaofu was also the appellation of one of the five tribes of the Yuechi who had migrated from across the Hindukush into Kabul valley around the Christian era. According to some scholars, the fifth clan mentioned among the Tochari/Yuechi may have been a clan of the Kambojas
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom captured Kabul from the Mauryans in the early 2nd century BC, then lost the city to their subordinates in the Indo-Greek Kingdom in the mid 2nd century BC.
Indo-Scythians expelled the Indo-Greeks by the mid 1st century BC, but lost the city to the Kushan Empire nearly 100 years later. It was conquered by Kushan Emperor Kujula Kadphises in the early 1st century AD and remained Kushan territory until at least the 3rd century AD. Kabul was one of the two capital cities of the Kushans.
Around 230 AD the Kushans were defeated by the Sassanid Empire and were replaced by Sassanid vassals known as the Kushanshas or Indo-Sassanids.
In 420 AD the Kushanshahs (Kushan kings) were driven out of Afghanistan by the Chionites tribe known as the Kidarites, who were then replaced in the 460s by the Hephthalites. Barhatkin was the first Shahi King followed by King Khingala about 5th Century .
The rulers of Kabul-Shahan built a huge defensive wall around the city to protect it from invaders.
This wall has survived until today and is considered a historical site.
Islamic conquest
In 674, the Islamic invasions reached modern-day Afghanistan. Kabul to the east fell in 871 despite the resistance of the Hindushahi..
Over the remaining centuries to come the city was successively controlled by the Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Timurids, Mughols, Durranis, and finally by the Barakzais.
In the 13th century the Mongol horde passed through and took control of the area. But as Timurid power waned, the city was captured in 1504 by Babur and made into his headquarters or capital.
Haidar, an Indian poet who visited at the time wrote "Dine and drink in Kabul: it is mountain, desert, city, river and all else."
Modern history
Nadir Shah of Persia invaded and captured the city in 1738 but was assassinated nine years later. Ahmad Shah Durrani, an Afghan military commander and personal bodyguard of Nader, took the throne in 1747, asserted Pashtun rule and further expanded his new Afghan Empire.
His son Timur Shah Durrani, after inheriting power, transferred the capital of Afghanistan from Kandahar to Kabul in 1776. Timur Shah died in 1793 and was succeeded by his son Zaman Shah Durrani.
In 1826, the kingdom was claimed by Dost Mohammed Khan and taken from him by the British Indian Army in 1839, who installed the unpopular puppet Shah Shuja. An 1841 local uprising resulted in the loss of the British mission and the subsequent Massacre of Elphinstone's army of approximately 16,000 people, which included civilians and camp followers on their retreat from Kabul to Jalalabad.
In 1842 the British returned, plundering Bala Hissar in revenge before retreating back to India. Dost Mohammed returned to the throne.
Aerial view of Kabul in 1969.
The British invaded in 1878 as Kabul was under Sher Ali Khan's rule, but the British residents were again massacred.
Amir Abdur Rahman was left in control of the country.
In the early 20th century, King Amanullah Khan rose to power. In 1919, after the Third Anglo-Afghan War, Amanullah announced Afghanistan's independence from foreign interventions at Eidgah Mosque.
In 1929, Ammanullah Khan left Kabul because of a local uprising and his brother Nader Khan took control. This protest ended in the arrest of many of its organizers including Mawlana Faizani, a popular Islamic scholar.
In July 1973, Zahir Shah was ousted in a bloodless coup and Kabul became the capital of a republic under Mohammad Daoud Khan, the new President.
The system was built with assistance from Czechoslovakia.
Soviet invasion
After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, on December 24, 1979, the Red Army occupied the capital. They turned the city into their command center during the 10-year conflict between the Soviet-allied government and the Mujahideen rebels.
In December, the last of the 86 city trolley buses came to a halt because of the conflict. The United Nations estimated that about 90% of the buildings in Kabul were destroyed during these years.
Taliban capture
Kabul was captured by the Taliban on September 26, 1996, publicly lynching ex-President Najibullah and his brother.
The Taliban abandoned Kabul in the following months because of extensive American bombing, while the Afghan Northern Alliance (former mujahideen or millias) came to retake control of the city. Security was provided by US (Operation Enduring Freedom) and NATO (ISAF) forces until late 2008.
The Mayor of Kabul City is selected by the President of Afghanistan, who engages in the city's planning and environmental work.
The police and security forces belong to the prefecture and Ministry of Interior. There is no official governmental data on the exact ethnic make-up of the city.
Kam Air, Pamir Airways, and Safi Airways also have their hubs in Kabul. Airlines from nearby nations such as Pakistan, Iran, India, and several others also make stops at Kabul Airport.
A new international terminal was built by the government of Japan and began operation in 2008. The other two will open once air traffic to the city increases.
NATO also uses the Kabul Airport, but most military traffic is based at Bagram Air Base, just north of Kabul. The Kabul bus system has recently discovered a new source of revenue in whole-bus advertising from MTN similar to "bus wrap" advertising on public transit in more developed nations.
People are buying new cars as the roads and highways are being improved. Most drivers in Kabul prefer owning a Toyota Corolla due to its popularity in Asia. With the exception of motorcycles many vehicles in the city operate on LPG.
In November 2006, the Afghan Ministry of Communications signed a US 64.5 million dollar agreement with a company (ZTE Corporation) on the establishment of a countrywide fibre optical cable network. Package delivery services like FedEx, TNT N.V., DHL and others are also available.
The city has many local language radio stations, including Pashto and Dari, as well as some programs in the English language.
Some of the well known public schools are Amani High School, Durrani High School, Ghulam Haider Khan High School, Sultan Razia School, etc.
The city's colleges and universities were also renovated after 2002. The landmark InterContinental Hotel has also been refurbished and is in operation.
The plan for Kabul's nine billion dollar future modern urban development project, the City of Light Development.
An initial concept design called the City of Light Development, envisioned by Dr.
for the development and the implementation of a privately based investment enterprise has been proposed for multi-function commercial, historic and cultural development within the limits of the Old City of Kabul along the Southern side of the Kabul River and along Jade Meywand Avenue, revitalizing some of the most commercial and historic districts in the City of Kabul, which contains numerous historic mosques and shrines as well as viable commercial activities among war damaged buildings. President Hamid Karzai formally opened the facility in an attempt to attract more foreign investment in the city.
In late 2007 the government announced that all the residential houses situated on mountains would be removed within a year so that trees and other plants can be grown on the hills.
The plan is to try to make the city greener and provide residents with a more suitable place to live, on a flat surface.