There are four other sites on Afghanistan’s “tentative list” for Unesco World Heritage nomination. Bagh-e Babur in Kabul is the only surviving garden from the Timurid era (16th century) and it was beautifully restored from 2002 to 2008 by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Laid out in the early sixteenth century by the Mughal emperor Babur, the site now known as Bagh-e Babur.

The natural landscape was central to the life of Babur’s court, and he was buried in the garden in around 1540. Among his successors, both Jahangir and Shah Jahan commissioned works on this site, in honour of Babur.

Accounts of nineteenth-century travellers suggest that the garden subsequently fell into disrepair, and its perimeter walls were reportedly damaged in an earthquake in 1842. Repairs were carried out at the turn of the century, during the reign of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, who constructed a complex for use by his family within the garden. Further transformations took place during the twentieth century, when European-style elements were introduced into the landscape and a swimming pool and greenhouse were built on an upper terrace. By the time fighting broke out in Kabul in 1993–94, the character of Bagh-e Babur was much altered and the site was in a poor state of repair.