Painstaking rescue of Kabul’s crumbling Bala Hissar fortress reveals 2,000 years of Afghan history

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Perched high above the southern edge of Kabul’s old city, the imposing fortress of Bala Hissar has endured centuries of invasions, uprisings and conflict that scarred Afghanistan and left the citadel crumbling.

Now, an extensive, yearslong project by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, or AKTC, is painstakingly conserving Bala Hissar. The aim is to turn the site into a public archaeological park, complete with landscaped gardens, restaurants and a museum.

Despite decades of neglect and war, archaeological treasures gradually unearthed within the walls of the strategic fortress in the Afghan capital are revealing more than two millennia of the country’s tumultuous history.

The excavations are uncovering an astonishing wealth of finds, from evidence of ancient human habitation to the remains of a Buddhist monastery and the luxurious baths of a Mughal palace.

“We never thought we would find so much,” said archaeologist Babak Rafiei-Alavi, standing at one of Bala Hissar’s excavation sites as workers with trowels painstakingly sifted through the earth. “It’s like a submarine coming out of the ocean.”

Work in five separate trenches at the site has unearthed ancient coins, fragments of Buddhist statues, glazed Islamic ceramics, oil lamps, countless pieces of pottery and the remains of palaces, monasteries and dwellings.

“In some parts we were expecting something. But not this,” Rafiei-Alavi said of the discovery of remnants of a Mughal palace, complete with murals, a thronelike structure and a star-shaped pool carved into the rock at the top of the hill.

The location of Bala Hissar, which means High Fort in Dari, is key to its significance. Cascading down a prominent outcrop of the Kuh-e-Sher Darwaza mountain ridge, the fortress occupies a commanding position above the old city that helped it protect access routes to Kabul.

Bala Hissar also was an important religious settlement and political center of power along a crucial trade route connecting the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia and beyond. It was “part of a string of pearls of these types of cultural and human settlements,” Aga Khan Cultural Services Project Manager Mustafa Nouri said.

Through the ages, the site has served as a fortress, palace complex, arsenal, administrative center, prison and military garrison.

“Bala Hissar embodies every stage of Afghan history until the American presence and the post-American presence,” Nouri said.

Only traces remain of its royal palaces and Buddhist monasteries. But an enduring characteristic has been the site’s use as a strategic defensive location, from the first century B.C. to the Mughal empire, Anglo-Afghan wars, Soviet invasion, civil war and the U.S.-led coalition . Part of the site’s lower areas are still used by the Afghan military.

“Effectively, whoever controlled Bala Hissar controlled Kabul, and controlled the region,” Nouri explained.

While Bala Hissar suffered repeated destruction and rebuilding through the centuries, the heaviest blow came when British troops avenged the 1879 killing of British envoy Sir Louis Cavagnari and his entourage inside Bala Hissar by destroying much of the complex.

Today, the sprawling site still bears the scars of years of neglect and Afghanistan's repeated conflicts.

Parts of its defensive walls have crumbled. The hulk of a rusting Soviet tank, one of several still within the walls, sits on the slope leading to the highest point of the fortress. At the foot of the hill, destroyed and decaying Soviet military hardware lies tangled in a rusty heap. Nearby, large-caliber weapons abandoned after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021 stand in neat rows, now property of Afghanistan’s military.

Part of the site within the walls was leveled off in 2008 by U.S. forces who “destroyed many archaeological layers,” Rafiei-Alavi said.

Planning for the AKTC’s ambitious conservation project began in 2017, with work starting the following year. Initial surveying and documenting, including with ground-penetrating radar and 3D laser scans, were followed by emergency stabilization to prevent further collapse of the historic fortifications.

The French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan was initially involved in excavations, but work temporarily halted after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

The French delegation did not return. But the AKTC continued operating and has carried out its most extensive work since 2022, Nouri said.

Using locally sourced rock, parts of the defensive walls are being rebuilt. In keeping with international norms of conservation and restoration, new segments are deliberately distinguishable, slightly recessed or protruding from the original construction, Nouri explained.

Metal reinforcements now hold together one of the exterior towers, which had split open and was in danger of crumbling.

The main objective is to turn Bala Hissar into an archaeological public park.

The extensive site and ambition of the project, which includes a training program for Afghan archaeology students, is a “long-term commitment … in terms of decades, due to the fact that it’s not only conservation works, but also it’s quite rich in archaeology,” Nouri explained.

One of the archaeological trenches is already 11 meters (36 feet) deep, with more to be uncovered.

“Everywhere in Bala Hissar when you dig you find something, because it’s inhabited for more than 2,000 years,” Rafiei-Alavi said.

Afghan authorities say they are keen to preserve the country’s cultural artifacts and historical sites, a radical departure from the previous Taliban rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

In 2001, the Taliban dynamited two giant, sixth-century Buddha statues carved into a cliff face in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan and ransacked the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, smashing ancient artifacts, especially statues considered to be un-Islamic.

But now, the current Taliban government says it is keen to safeguard the nation’s monuments.

“We recognize the importance of preserving the country’s ancient sites,” said Ministry of Information and Culture spokesperson Khubaib Ghufran. “We view these remnants of past civilizations as valuable sources of insight and lessons. We fully appreciate their significance.”

The government prioritizes restoring monuments facing threats, such as Bala Hissar, “ensuring that we can pass on the legacy of both past and present civilizations to future generations in a well-preserved state,” Ghufran said.

Abdul Qahar Afghan in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.