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Phototheca AfghanicaPhototheca Afghanica
Map of Kabul and surrounding country. The Second Afghan War 1878-80: Abridged Official Account (1908), f.p. 288
Collection
Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive 1878-1880
Series
RE 057-099, Kabul Photographs
RE 056
Details
Panorama of the south-eastern front of the Bala Hissar fortifications, seen from a hillock near the Ziyarat-e Shah Shahid (see RE 059), opposite the main gate. According to Afghan tradition [S.Q. Reshtia] this gate was called Peshawar Gate or Shah Shahid Gate; the Lahore Gate was situated at the eastern end of the Char Chatta Bazar of the city. In the background the fortifications run up to the Bala Borj (upper tower) and the wall, on the crest of the mountain Sher Darwaza. The white buildings on the right corner used to be the prison and residence of Prince Mhd Yaqub, son of Amir Sher Ali.
Place, date
Kabul, 1879
Collection
Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive 1878-1880
Series
RE 057-099, Kabul Photographs
RE 057
Details
Close up view of the main gate Darwaza-ye Shah Shahid or Peshawar Gate, on the eastern wall of the Bala Hissar. Although it is not the Lahore Gate, which was the eastern gate of the city of Kabul, it was often called so by the British. The gate is composed of two octagonal flanking towers and a middle recess in three parts. The lower part seems to be of stone, the upper storey of plastered brick, ornated with Mughal style arches, partly crowned with battlements. The right tower was called Borj-e Bejanju after the Indian architect of the gate and of some buildings inside the Bala Hissar. The left tower was known as the Borj-e Khuni (Blood-tower), as condemned criminals were thrown from its top. In front of the gate and the adjacent walls is a ditch, crossed by a wide ramp.
Place, date
Kabul, November-December 1879
Collection
Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive 1878-1880
Series
RE 057-099, Kabul Photographs
RE 058
Details
Front view of the entrance on the western side of the ziyarat of the Islamic saint Shah Shahid. Close to this spot Amir Shah Shuja ol-Mulk (1792-1803-1810-1839-1842), son of Amir Timur Shah was murdered on April 5, 1842 by the hand of Shuja od-Dawla, son of Nawab Zaman. In this graveyard the tombstone of John Hicks, who died in Kabul in 1666, was found by Masson in 1831 and reported again in 1839, but had vanished when it was searched for in 1879.
Place, date
Kabul, winter 1879/80
Collection
Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive 1878-1880
Series
RE 057-099, Kabul Photographs
RE 059
Details