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RE 068 — Residency (Front View)

Frontal view of the northern (courtyard) facade of the southern part of the main building within the Residency. These rooms were occupied by the British Resident Major Sir Pierre Louis Napoleon Cavagnari, K.C.B., C.S.I.
[Album:] Residency (Front View) / Sir L. Cavagnari's Quarters Bala Hissar. [Album, on label = S&M list:] 2-3 Residency (Front View).
  • Original:
    Chatham: Box No.: F 18, Album No.: 6/44, Page No.: 25
  • Collection Cabul Defences, Photo-No. CD 11 F: identical photograph
  • Thackeray, E.T. (1881): Views of Kabul and Environs, pl. 17: identical photograph, "The Residency back View."
  • The Second Afghan War 1878-80: Abridged Official Account (1908), f.p. 184: identical photograph, “The Residency, Kabul - Front View.”
  • The Graphic, Vol. 20 (1879/2), Sept. 27, pp. 301-301: description of the Residency, with an engraving and a ground-plan furnished by Lady Cavagnari
  • The Illustrated London News, Vol. 75 (1879/2), Dec. 20, p. 577: engraving of the same building, “Interior of the British Residency, looking south.”
  • Duke, J. (1883): The Kabul Campaign, pp. 162-166: detailed description of the Residency.
  • N.H. Dupree (1977): An Historical Guide to Afghanistan, pp. 82-83: "Kabul's Bala Hissar, rising 150 feet above the plain, witnessed most of the exciting events of Afghanistan's history up until the spring of 1880. Babur, founder of the Moghul Empire of India, lived here early in the 16th century. He loved it well, did much to embellish it, and wrote poetry extolling its commanding view. Succeeding kings alternately ruled from it or languished in its dungeons. Then, on that fateful day in September 1879, a British Representative, Sir Louis Cavagnari, and his escort, were cut down in one of its palaces on the southern side. This vivid protest against British interference in Afghan affairs brought a British army to occupy the Bala Hissar, hang rebellious chieftains from gallows erected in its courtyards, and to close its story the following spring when they demolished it. [...]"
  • W. Ball (1981): Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan, pp. 136-137: Kabul.
  • 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."
  • Duckers, P. (2000): On Service in India - The Mein Family Photographs 1870-1901, p. 34: this photograph, “The front view of part of the Residency in the Bala Hissar where Cavagnari and his escort of Guides was killed. The fire damage and bullet holes are clearly visible. [...]”
  • 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, p. 28, fig. 36: “A photograph of Cavagnari’s residence. After the assault on it, all removable fittings were looted. There was some further damage from the explosion in a magazine in the upper fort.”
Image No.
RE 068
Collection
Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive 1878-1880 1878-1880
Series
RE 057-099, Kabul Photographs
Format
Albumen paper with gold toning, 210/280 mm, mounted on cardboard
Quality
good
Place, date
Kabul, November-December 1879
Descriptors
  • 0101. Kabul City
  • 1.57 Pictures of Landscapes, Cities
  • 2.126 Kabul and SE-Afghanistan
  • 3.825 Representative / Administrative Buildings
  • 4.364 Second A.-A. War (1878-1880)
  • 4.416 GB Relations with Great Britain
  • Latitude / Longitude34.506764 / 69.193880
    Google Earth34°30'25" N / 69°11'38" E / 1815 m
    Survey of India MapSheet 38 (1917), Kabul: Kabul, Bala Hissar, 2B 26

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