Bagh-e Bala Palace
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The Bagh-e Bala Palace (Dari: قصر باغ بالا کابل) is a former royal palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. It is located at a hilltop in the Bagh-e Bala (High Garden) park near Karte Parwan. The palace has a large pool (added in the 1970s) and is surrounded by pine trees.[1]
It was built by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan in 1893 as a place for him to spend summers in, and he later died there in 1901.[2] It was then used as a castle under Emir Habibullah Khan, and then as a guesthouse.
In 1919 it housed the National Museum of Afghanistan before the collection was moved elsewhere, and the palace became a military house under King Ghazi Amanullah Khan. After being abandoned by 1930, it was renovated and turned into a restaurant under King Zahir Shah in the 1960s.[3][4]
The palace survived the civil war of the 1990s. It was renovated again in the 2000s and 2010s, with its interior preserved to look like the original 19th century design,[5][6][7] but it is currently not in official use.
The area around the palace (Bagh-e Bala) has become a large public park. American historians Nancy and Louis Dupree married here in 1966.[8]
