Bagh-e Bala Palace

The Bagh-e Bala Palace (Dari: قصر باغ بالا کابل) is a former royal palace near the famous Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan. It sits on a hilltop in the Bagh-e Bala (High Garden) park near the Karte Parwan neighborhood. The palace has a large pool (added in the 1970s) and is surrounded by pine trees.

It was built by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan in 1893 as a place for him to spend summers in, and he later died there in 1901. It was then used as a castle under Emir Habibullah Khan, and then as a guesthouse.

In 1919 it housed the National Museum of Afghanistan before the collection was moved elsewhere, and the palace became a military house under King Ghazi Amanullah Khan. After being abandoned by 1930, it was renovated and turned into a restaurant under King Zahir Shah in the 1960s.

The palace survived the civil war of the 1990s. It was renovated again in the 2000s and 2010s, with its interior preserved to look like the original 19th century design, but it is currently not in official use.

The area around the palace (Bagh-e Bala) has become a large public park. American historians Nancy and Louis Dupree married here in 1966.

Text adapted from “Bagh-e Bala Palace” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Bagh-e Bala Palace ranks #5,204 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #10 of the 12 mapped in Afghanistan. Founded 1893 — one of 607 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,041 times in the last 60 days, more than 50% of the atlas. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Afghanistan compares in the castle statistics.

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