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RE 069 — Explosion in the Bala Hissar

This photograph was taken after the explosion of the powder magazines in the Upper Bala Hissar, looking from the western end of the courtyard in direction NE. In the background the tomb of Sultan Telai is visible on the slope of Tapa Maranjan, which was called Siah Sang by the British.
[Album:] Magazine, Upper Bala Hissar after explosion / (Earthenware to store Powder in it) // View in Upper Bala Hissar, showing the large earthenware vessels in which the powder was stored in the Afghan Magazines. [S&M List:] 2-9 Magazine, Upper Bala Hissar.
  • Original:
    Chatham: Box No.: F 18, Album No.: 6/44, Page No.: 16
  • Collection Cabul Defences, Photo-No. 11 H: identical photograph
  • The Graphic, Vol. 20 (1879/2), Dec. 6, p. 550: Text “The explosion in the Bala Hissar”; p. 556: engraving “The explosion of the magazine at the Bala Hissar, Cabul”.
  • [Parliamentary Blue Papers]: Afghanistan No. 1 (1880), p. 155 in a telegram from General F. Roberts to the Secretary to the Government of India, dated 20th October 1879: "The terrific explosions which occurred in the Upper Bala Hissar on the 16th instant have convinced me that large quantities of powder must have been stored underground."
  • [Parliamentary Blue Papers]: Afghanistan No. 1 (1881), p. 67, in an enclosure by the Viceroy Lord Lytton: "The occupation of Kabul in October 1879 revealed to us much valuable information concerning the offensive power which the Amir possessed in his army, his well stocked arsenal, and his skilful artisans."
  • Mitford, R.C.W. (1880): To Caubul with the Cavalry Brigade, pp. 79-82: “The following day, Thursday, the 16th of October, was made memorable by the great explosion at the Bala Hissar. It was a quarter to two o’clock, luncheon had just been ordered, and Neville and I, with some visitors from the 9th Lancers, were sitting in the mess tent directly facing the BalaHissar, and about fifteen hundred yards from it. We were chatting away about the recent expedition when someone […] suddenly exclaimed, and immediately following came a deep heavy roar. We looked up and saw an extraordinary – I may say an appalling – sight. A dense column of smoke shot into the air from the upper magazine of the fortress, rising in an apparently solid mass for some two thousand feet, or more, when it spread out at the top like a gigantic dark-grey palm-tree, and remained in this shape, a heavy, opaque mass of the thickest smoke, for fully sixty seconds, totally unaffected by the bursting shells, exploding boxes of cartridges, and showers of stone and débris which continually broke through it. At last the rising wind gradually, but very slowly, drifted the column of smoke away, but the fire had got well hold of the magazine, and the explosion of boxes of ammunition continued at intervals for upward of twelve hours.”
  • Hensman, H. (1882): The Afghan War of 1879-80, p. 74 ff, report on the events of 16th.
  • Duke, J. (1883): The Kabul Campaign, pp. 176-185: detailed description of the explosion.
  • 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. 38: this photograph, “’Magazine, Upper Bala Hissar: Skins and gharrus of powder, as found on our first entry.’ The Bala Hissar was found to contain huge quantities of ammunition and powder. On 16 October 1879, two violent explosions occurred in the magazine, shaking the city and killing the Ordnance Officer, Lt E.D. Shafto RA (who was supervizing the clearance of the stores) and twenty-one soldiers and helpers. The explosions helped convince Roberts of the need to move his garrison beyond the city to the cantonments at Sherpur.”
  • Woodburn, C.W. (2009): The Bala Hissar of Kabul. Revealing a fortress-palace in Afghanistan, p. 31, fig. 42: “The south-east corner of the upper Bala Hissar, after some gunpowder stores had exploded. Gunpowder, made locally, was stored in the type of earthenware pots shown.”
Image No.
RE 069
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
  • 3.827 Stores and Warehouses
  • 4.364 Second A.-A. War (1878-1880)
  • Latitude / Longitude34.505977 / 69.191522
    Google Earth34°30'22" N / 69°11'30" E / 1835 m
    Survey of India MapSheet 38 (1917), Kabul: Kabul, Bala Hissar, 2B 26

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