Chil Zena ("Forty steps"), also Chilzina or Chehel Zina, is a mountainous outcrop at the western limit of the city of

Kandahar Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city, after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118 in 2015. It is the capital of Kandahar Pro ...

. Forty stone steps lead to the top of the outcrop, hence its name. It gives a commanding view on the city of

. Chil Zena was located on the northern side of the old citadel of

Old Kandahar Old Kandahar (locally known as Zorr Shaar, ; also Shahr-i-Kona, , meaning 'Old City') is a historical section of the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. The citadel It is widely believed that after conquering Mundigak in 330 BC, Alexander ...

, destroyed by

Nadir Shah Afshar Nader Shah Afshar (; 6 August 1698 or 22 October 1688 – 20 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, ruling as shah of Iran (Persia) from 1736 to 1747, when he was a ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

in 1738. The carving of the staircase was commissioned by the Emperor Babur. Chil Zena later received numerous inscriptions about the conquests of

Babur Babur (; 14 February 148326 December 1530; born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also ...

(1526-1530), apparently carved by his son

Humayun Nasir al-Din Muhammad (6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), commonly known by his regnal name Humayun (), was the second Mughal emperor, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Northern India, and Pakistan from ...

. Chil Zena is well known for the discovery of the Indian Emperor

Ashoka Ashoka, also known as Asoka or Aśoka ( ; , ; – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was List of Mauryan emperors, Emperor of Magadha from until #Death, his death in 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynast ...

Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription The Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription, also known as the Kandahar Edict of Ashoka and less commonly as the Chehel Zina Edict, is an inscription in the Ancient Greek, Greek and Aramaic languages that dates back to 260 BCE and was carved b ...

on the mountainside, which is still located on in an open-air compound on the mountainside. The presence of this inscription at Chil Zena helped confirm the presence of Greek populations in the vicinity in the 3rd century BCE, as well as the extent of Ashoka's control, which is therefore thought to have incorporated

and its region of

Arachosia Arachosia (; ), or Harauvatis ( ), was a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. Mainly centred around the Arghandab River, a tributary of the Helmand River, it extended as far east as the Indus River. The satrapy's Persian-language name is the et ...

References

Kandahar {{Afghanistan-stub