Darul Aman Palace, Afghanistan

Darul Aman Palace (Pashto: د دارالامان ماڼۍ‎; Persian: قصر دارالامان‎‎; "abode of peace" or, in a double meaning "abode of Aman[ullah]")^[1] is a ruined palace located about sixteen kilometers (ten miles) outside of the center of Kabul, Afghanistan. As of 2017, progress is being made on a major project intended to fully renovate the building by 2019.

Construction of the Darul Aman Palace began in the early 1920s as a part of the endeavours of King Amanullah Khan to modernize Afghanistan. It was to be part of the new capital city (also called Darul Aman or Darulaman) that the king intended to build, connected to Kabul by a narrow gauge railway.

The palace is an imposing neoclassical building on a hilltop overlooking a flat, dusty valley in the western part of the Afghan capital. Designed by French and German architects, it was one of the first buildings in the country to get central heating and running water. Intended as the seat of a future parliament, the building remained unused and partially complete for many years after religious conservatives forced Amanullah from power in 1929, and halted his reforms. In later years it served as the medical school for Kabul University, as well a warehouse, and the seat of several smaller ministries.

The building was gutted by fire in 1969, and afterwards restored to house the Ministry of Defense during the 1970s and 1980s. In the Communist coup of 1978, the building was once more set on fire. It was damaged again as rival Mujahideen factions fought for control of Kabul in the early 1990s after the end of the Soviet invasion. Heavy shelling by the Mujahideen left the palace a gutted ruin, and it was mostly used as a refugee settlement and a nomad camp until the early 2000s, when it became a battalion headquarters for the Afghan National Army.

In 2005, a plan was unveiled to refurbish the palace for use as the seat of Afghanistan's future parliament.It was to be funded primarily by private donations from foreigners and wealthy Afghans. As of July 2010 there were still no signs of any renovations. The palace one of several targets in a series of attacks launched on April 15, 2012, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.

In early 2016 work began on a US$ 20 million restoration project, intended to renovate the palace in time for the centenary of Afghanistan’s independence from Britain in 1919. Nearly 600 tons of debris was initially removed from the 150-room building, and by the spring of 2017, workers were taking down plaster and concrete from the inner walls. Source: Wikipedia

 

 

Before destruction

Picture Source: Collected from Internet