Capital city of Afghanistan since 1776, founded 3,500 years ago. Not exactly the most hospitable place, especially for Westerners and Women. The Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam led them to ban television and even music. Much of the battered city is in ruins. The population has dropped from the 1988 level of ~1,424,400 to ~700,000.

I spent two days in Kabul in 1978. Given the 20+ years of strife since then, I doubt there's much left of anything that I saw. But for whatever it may be worth, here's what I recall of the place:

1. Lots of soldiers, mostly looking more like victims, in very poor uniforms and underfed, but everywhere.
2. Women in purdah -- those head-to-toe bags (which might be called chador. At least I think they were women.
3. A boy in a shop selling real fur jackets, who wanted to buy my cheap wool coat lined with synthetic fur.
4. Turd square: a large empty lot frequently used by people needing a crap. A very nasty experience for the unaware.
5. Terrible food. Either chicken or lamb, and neither dish tasted different from the other or anything like chicken or lamb.
6. Wonderful ethnic music by a local group who'd name I never did get, and never got to hear the like of again. One of those once in a life time experiences.
7. Roadside butcher shops, with carcasses hanging over the foopath.
8. The mountains beyond the city. Treeless, grassless and rather sinister really.
9. The people, who seemed uniformly pleasant and obliging. Even the money changers were nice, in a money-changer kind of way.

Pronunciation: (kä'bool, -bul, ku-bOOl'),
--n.
1. a city in and the capital of Afghanistan, NE.
2. a river flowing E from NE Afghanistan to the Indus River in Pakistan. 360 mi. (580 km) long.

City Statistics

Location : 34-31' Latitude; 69-12' Longitude
Elevation : 1800 m (6000 feet) above sea level
Population (1992) : 1.5 million¹; 52.2% Male, 47.8% Female
Density : 250-300 people per Hectare (10,000 square meters, or slightly less than two and a half acres).
Area : 16830 Hectare

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Oh, the beautiful city of Kabul wears a rugged mountain skirt,
And The rose is jealous of its lash-like thorns.
The dust of Kabul's blowing soil smarts lightly in my eyes,
But I love her, for knowledge and love both come from her dust ...

From Kabul, written by Saib-e-Tabrizi in the seventeenth century. Translated from French.

. . .

A Brief History

Kabul first appeared in history's scope at roughly 2000 BCE, contained in the ancient Indian hymns of Rig-Veda. In its foundling stages it was known under a variety of different names: Greek historians/geographers Starbone and Beltemous named it Ortaspana ("highland region") and Kaboura, respectively. Still other sources named the city Carura. It was in this time located on the Loghar Valley section of the Kabul River, southeast of its present station.

The city began its trend of Northwest-directed relocation during the second to fourth centuries, and Kabul's fortress emerged in the third century. Fame reared its unearthly head (to a degree) on the city several hundred years later with Arab conquer; but it remained under the shadows of companion Afghani cities Ghazni and Herat until then-ruler Babur made it his capital in 1504. Under Babur the city saw extensive development and the design and establishment of numerous parks and other places of recreation. Additionally, the bazaars that would complement Kabul in its growing notoriety endeavored business in and around its residential areas. By the end of the seventeenth century Kabul was an important trade center with a population over 10,000.

Nadir Shah of Persia took Kabul from the Arabs in 1738 and it again saw captial status in 1773 with its succession of Kandahar. From here the city grew further, its expansion based for the first time upon a master plan. Public baths, mosques, and the like were constructed within the city's urban boundaries.

The city shifted hands again in 1839, this time falling to the British. Further development ensued, manifested in new districts and great increases in area and the establishment of several world-famous bazaars. Three years later the British withdrew and were ambushed and, in retaliation, burned part of the city. They reoccupied in 1879 after the massacre of a British envoy in the area.

1878 calculations placed the city's population at 70,000. The period 1878-1919 saw the city's independence, relocation of the administrative center, the construction of various government offices and facilities and the establishment of the Kabul National Museum. Textile and fabric factories oversaw the foreshadowing of a semi-capitalist economic system. During the beginning of the twentieth century large main roads snaked from Kabul to other large cities and regions. The 1925 population of Kabul was 90,000.

During the next decades two-story buildings debuted in Kabul and were complemented with renovation and reconstruction of the roads in the bazaar areas. A System of Public Services and the blossom of new residential zones took place in the city as well as all throughout the country of Afghanistan. Kabul University opened in 1946. Larger buildings with more floors appeared. By 1962, Kabul's population was nearly 400,000 and its territory 6840 hectare.

Soviet forces moved into Kabul in December of 1979 in order to help bolster a Communist government. The city became the Soviet command center but nonetheless suffered little damage in the ten-year conflict; the Soviets withdrew in February of 1989. The spring 1992 collapse of the government of Mohammad Najibullah placed the city in the hands of Islamic guerillas, and subsequently immersed it in violent civil war through which the Taliban ascended.

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¹ 1997 censuses also place Kabul's population at a million and a half, but it can be safe to assume in light of world events that these figures are no longer accurate.

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Saib-e-Tabrizi's Kabul can be found in its entirety, both in English and in French, at http://www.afghan-network.net/Culture/kabul_poem.html
Other sources include http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0826839.html and http://www.afghan-info.com/Kabul/Gen_Info.htm