RE 070 — Bird's-eye view of the Bala Hissar

• Original:
  Chatham: Box No.: F 43, Album No.: 6/5, Page No.: 32 a + b
• Collection Cabul Defences, photo-No. 11: the same panorama: VIEW OF BALA HISSAR, UPPER AND LOWER. From a point on the spur descending from the Bala Burj. The command of fire thus obtained will be readily noticed. On Siah Sang are seen Fort Roberts, and the Blockhouse. The clear space in the Bala Hissar, in front of the position formed by our buildings, was, at first, covered with Natives’ houses packed closely together, like those seen on the left in the City. // “A” Diwan-i-Am Garden. The building from which Sir F. Roberts’ proclamation was delivered, in Oct. 1879, was at the S. end of this enclosure, at the foot of the steep slope from the Upper Bala Hissar immediately confronting the building still standing in the middle of the N. side. // Postern Gate, opened by us, for communication with the Bala Burj, Shahr-i-Darwaza, &c. The old canal of the Amirs, called the Bala Jui, enters the Bala Hissar at this point.
• Thackeray, E.T. (1881): Views of Kabul and Environs, pl. 20 and 21: identical photo-graphs, “Bala Kitsar [sic!] from the Sher Durwaza.”
• The Illustrated London News, Vol. 75 (1879/2), Sept. 20, p. 255: description of “Cabul and the Bala Hissar”; p. 260: engraving with a similar view, taken at the time of the First A-A War, “Bala Hissar and city of Cabul, from the upper part of the citadel.”
• Hensman, H. (1882): The Afghan War of 1879-80, p. 132, reports on Nov. 7th, that soon not one mud wall will remain at the lower Bala Hissar.
• The Pioneer Mail, 7/6, February 5, 1880, pp. 11-12: a detailed description of the demolishion of the Bala Hissar; 7/11, March 11, 1880, p. 11: “In the Bala Hissar […] which, by the way, has assumed quite a modern appearance, so much so, that it would puzzle its former owners to tell you where on earth they ever lived. Major Blackenbury has sliced away with such good effect, that a coach-and-four could be driven all over the place, in at one gate and out of the other […]; palaces, halls of audience, masjids,arsenals, have all been levelled to the ground, […].”
• L.W. Adamec (1985): Kabul and southeast Afghanistan, pp. 324-338: Kabul City, p. 324: "The old residence of the Amirs of Kabul used to be in the Bala Hisar, but the Amir moves about from one to another of the various country residences that he has built on favourable spots in the neighbourhood of the city."
• Schinasi, M. (2008): Kaboul 1773-1948, pp. 42-44: La citadelle (bala hesar).
• Woodburn, C.W. (2009): The Bala Hissar of Kabul. Revealing a fortress-palace in Afghanistan, pp. 36-37, fig. 46: “Panoramic view of the Bala Hissar, from the west, in the spring of 1880 (after a fall of snow). The outer walls of the fort, although missing some battlements, were intact and in places had been strengthened. Within the fort, the western area of housing had been totally flattened, to provide a clear field of fire in front of a second line of defence that had been created in the walls and buildings across the middle of the lower fort. This was served by a roadway through the main garden (gaps can be seen in the garden walls). Behind that, in the eastern half of the lower fort, palaces, other buildings and stables had been retained for use by the troops. The circles in the centre foreground were not part of the fortifications, but were pits in which ice was stored for use in the summer. On the right are parts of the wall running up to the Bala Burj. […] After this photograph was taken, there were no significant changes made to the Bala Hissar prior to it being handed back to the Afghans in August 1880.

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