Places

The built and sacred landscape: cities and provinces, fortresses and minarets, archaeological sites, shrines, and passes.

• Arg of Kabul — the presidential citadel at the heart of Kabul, built by Abdur Rahman Khan in the 1880s
• Gardens of Babur — the Mughal emperor's garden and final resting place in Kabul
• Bala Hissar of Kabul — ancient fortress of Kabul — Mughal palace, Durrani arsenal, site of the Cavagnari massacre
• Balkh — "the mother of all cities" — ancient Bactra on the northern plain
• Blue Mosque of Mazar-i Sharif — the Shrine of Hazrat Ali — the Noble Tomb that named a city
• Char Chatta Bazaar — Mughal-era covered marketplace in Kabul, destroyed by British forces in 1842
• Chilzina — the Forty Steps — Babur's rock-cut inscription terrace above Old Kandahar
• Darul Aman Palace — Amanullah Khan's neoclassical palace — symbol of Afghan modernisation, ruined by civil war, restored in the 2010s
• Kabul — Afghanistan's capital — 3,500 years at the crossroads of empires
• Kandahar — Afghanistan's second city: ancient Arachosia, Durrani capital, Taliban birthplace
• Kandahar Province — the fertile-arid south: Arghandab orchards, Registan desert, Spin Boldak frontier
• Kot District — A Pashto-speaking district in northern Nangarhar Province, notable for 2015-2016 ISIS clashes.
• Old Kandahar — the ruined ancient city of Alexandria Arachosia, destroyed by Nader Shah in 1738
• Sherpur Cantonment — Former British military encampment in Kabul, now a cemetery and historic site