Bagh-e-Babur

Bagh-e-Babur is a garden located on the slopes of Kuh-e-Sher Darwaza, southwest of the old city of Kabul in Afghanistan. The garden is about 11.5 ha large and arranged in 15 terraces along a central axis in east west direction. From the top terrace, the visitor has a magnificent vista over the garden and its perimeter wall, across the Kabul River towards the snow covered mountains.

Created by the founder of the Mughal dynasty, Zahir ad-Din Muhammad Babur (1483-1530), after his conquest of Kabul in 1504, Bagh-e-Babur is one of the earliest surviving Mughal gardens. The king was a passionate gardener and personally designed and supervised at least 10 gardens in his capital Kabul (frontispiece). They are described in the Babur-name, but the historical name of Bagh-e-Babur is not known. Excavations revealed that Babur did not design his garden on an empty plot: ruins of a monumental building dating to the 3rd century BC and traces of a subsequent occupation to the 15th century made it necessary to clear the ground before a large terraced garden with a different orientation could be landscaped at this very spot. For political reasons, Babur had to move east and conquered northern India in 1526; he died in Agra in 1530. Throughout his years in the flat, dusty plains of India he missed his home country and thus wished to be buried in Kabul. His body was transferred to Bagh-e-Babur by his widow around 1544. The texts do not provide a reason why out of all gardens he chose this one. However, remains of older tombs with brick vaults and stone cists excavated underneath the tomb platform revealed that the area was already used as a cemetery, possibly by his Timurid kin - a finding which might provide a context for his choice.

As the tomb garden of the founder of the Mughal dynasty, Bagh-e-Babur became a place of veneration, a symbol, and hence gained superior importance among Babur's gardens: For nearly 150 years, his heirs, especially Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) and Shah Jahan (r. 1627-1658), paid their respects to his burial place and sponsored ambitious building programs to preserve and beautify the garden according to contemporary taste. However, beside the spiritual aspect there was also a political dimension through the representation of imperial presence. While this particular significance fostered the survival of the garden beyond the decline of the Mughal dynasty to the present day, it also exposed the garden to changes of its built surface until the 20th century.

Particularly intrusive was the building program implemented by Amir Abdur Rahman (r. 1880-1901). He constructed the haramseray in the southeast corner and a pavilion in the central axes on the 9th terrace, and landscaped the terraces and water works. His structural interventions changed the face and visual concept of the garden significantly: the formerly lofty tomb was enclosed by a wall, the pavilion blocked the view towards Shah Jahan's mosque and Babur's tomb from the entrance in the lower west.

However, Amir Abdur Rahman's garden did not survive for long: King Nadir Shah (r. 1929-1933) removed these structures apart from the pavilion and haramseray, realigned the tomb terrace on one level and restored its airy appearance, and opened the park with tea houses and restaurants to the general public. He gave the garden a definite "European" touch. It was his garden that was preserved until 2003, while the older ones, and especially the Mughal garden, were unknown apart from standing buildings, such as the tomb and the mosque.

Evidence for these different phases was brought to light in 13 seasons of excavation carried out by German Archaeological Institute between 2002 and 2005, supplemented by information from historical documents, book illustrations, drawings and photographs from the 19th and 20th century. This research placed the cultural history of Bagh-e-Babur into social, cultural and political context, deepened the understanding of the site and revealed its position within the tradition of and its contribution to the development of Islamic landscape gardens. It was carried out by the German Archaeological Institute and the National Institute of Archaeology in Afghanistan (DAI, with shared funding from the German Foreign Office and AKTC) within the framework of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) rehabilitation project which started in 2003, in collaboration with the Afghan government, the Kabul Municipality, donors and the local population it included specialists from various fields of expertise, such as architectural conservation, landscape architecture, management, planning, and historic and modern horticulture. Through an appropriate rehabilitation program and a carefully implemented management plan, this outstanding site was restored by AKTC along its historic roots according to international standards and guidelines, and handed over to the Afghan authorities in 2008.

Nearby pages
Baghbar Vidhan Sabha Constituency, Baghdad, Baghelkhand, Bagheria, Baghmara Vidhan Sabha Constituency in Jharkhand