Timur Shah Mausoleum, Kabul

Another surviving monument in central Kabul is the Mausoleum of Timur Shah Durrani, one of the eminent characters in Afghanistan history. From his father he inherited a unified Afghan kingdom in 1772, and later moved the capital city from Kandahar to Kabul, thus he is the founding father of the capital of the modern Afghan state. When Timur Shah passed away in 1793, he was buried in a garden on the banks of the Kabul River. His son commissioned to build him a mausoleum, which was finished in about 1817.

The mausoleum is an octagonal structure with a large outer dome built on a tall drum above an inside dome, designed in the Moghul and Afghan kings’ style. Since it was restored in 2012, the building serves as an important cultural and educational facility where various lectures, seminars and exhibitions take place. The park area by the Mausoleum is planted with mulberry trees.