Kabul , کابل ,Kābol, کابل Kābəl, Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan. According to the 2011 official estimates, the population of Kabul metropolitan area is 3.9 million people.
It is an economic and cultural centre, situated 5,900 ft (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 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 to Peshawar, Pakistan.
Kabul's main products include fresh and dried fruit, nuts, Afghan rugs, leather and sheep skin products, domestic clothes and furniture, and antique replicas, but the wars since 1978 have limited the economic productivity of the city. Economic productivity has improved since the establishment of the Karzai administration in late 2001.
Kabul is over 3,500 years old; many empires have long fought over the city for its strategic location along the trade routes of South and Central Asia.[4] Between 1504 and 1526 AD, Kabul served as the original capital of Babur, builder of the Mughal Empire. It remained under the Delhi Sultanate until 1738, when Nader Shah and his Afsharid forces invaded the Mughal Empire. After the death of Nader Shah Afsharid in 1747, the city fell to Ahmad Shah Durrani, who quickly added it to his new Afghan Empire. In 1776, Timur Shah Durrani made it the capital of the modern state of Afghanistan. Since the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan, the city has been a target of militant groups. It is currently being re-developed but attacks by Taliban and other militants are slowing down the reconstruction process.
History
History of Afghanistan
Antiquity
The word "Kubhā" is mentioned in Rigveda and the Avesta around 3000 BC, which appears to refer to the Kabul River.The Rigveda praises it as an ideal city, a vision of paradise set in the mountains. Others suggest that the city may have been established between 2000 BC and 1500 BC. The area in which the Kabul valley sat was part of the Median Empire before being conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. There is a reference to a settlement called Kabura by the rulers of the Achaemenid Empire (Darius, Darius II and Darius III of Persia), which may be the basis for the future use of the name Kabura (Κάβουρα) by Ptolemy. It became a centre of Zoroastrianism followed by Buddhism and Hinduism later. Alexander the Great explored the Kabul valley after his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC but no record has been made of Kabul, which may have been only a small town and not worth writing about. The region became part of the Seleucid Empire before falling to the Indian Maurya Empire.
It is an economic and cultural centre, situated 5,900 ft (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 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 to Peshawar, Pakistan.
Kabul's main products include fresh and dried fruit, nuts, Afghan rugs, leather and sheep skin products, domestic clothes and furniture, and antique replicas, but the wars since 1978 have limited the economic productivity of the city. Economic productivity has improved since the establishment of the Karzai administration in late 2001.
Kabul is over 3,500 years old; many empires have long fought over the city for its strategic location along the trade routes of South and Central Asia.[4] Between 1504 and 1526 AD, Kabul served as the original capital of Babur, builder of the Mughal Empire. It remained under the Delhi Sultanate until 1738, when Nader Shah and his Afsharid forces invaded the Mughal Empire. After the death of Nader Shah Afsharid in 1747, the city fell to Ahmad Shah Durrani, who quickly added it to his new Afghan Empire. In 1776, Timur Shah Durrani made it the capital of the modern state of Afghanistan. Since the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan, the city has been a target of militant groups. It is currently being re-developed but attacks by Taliban and other militants are slowing down the reconstruction process.
History
History of Afghanistan
Antiquity
The word "Kubhā" is mentioned in Rigveda and the Avesta around 3000 BC, which appears to refer to the Kabul River.The Rigveda praises it as an ideal city, a vision of paradise set in the mountains. Others suggest that the city may have been established between 2000 BC and 1500 BC. The area in which the Kabul valley sat was part of the Median Empire before being conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. There is a reference to a settlement called Kabura by the rulers of the Achaemenid Empire (Darius, Darius II and Darius III of Persia), which may be the basis for the future use of the name Kabura (Κάβουρα) by Ptolemy. It became a centre of Zoroastrianism followed by Buddhism and Hinduism later. Alexander the Great explored the Kabul valley after his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BC but no record has been made of Kabul, which may have been only a small town and not worth writing about. The region became part of the Seleucid Empire before falling to the Indian Maurya Empire.
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