Darulaman () is a locality on the south-western fringes of

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, forming part of District 6. The suburb was a

planned city A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

built in the 1920s during the reign of

Amanullah Khan Ghazi (warrior), Ghazi Amanullah Khan (Pashto/Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 26 April 1960) was the head of state, sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emirate of Afghanistan, Emir and after 1926 as Kingdom of Afghanistan, King, until his abdic ...

. Amanullah sought to turn Darulaman into a new modern

capital city A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...

, and hired German companies and engineers to build roads, bridges and other infrastructure. The construction of the suburb amounted to an estimated cost of ten million rupees, which was a third of the state's annual income at the time. Thus, Darulaman and other ambitious projects were crucial factors behind Amanullah's tax reforms to increase revenues. The area is connected to Kabul some 16 km away via Darulaman Road, a long straight boulevard, which has been described by one analyst as "perhaps the most exquisite street of the capital Kabul". A

narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter cur ...

, the Kabul-Darulaman Tramway, was also built and operated through this boulevard. Numerous buildings and palaces were built there, including the

Darul Aman Palace Darul Aman Palace (; ; 'Abode of Peace' or, in a double meaning, 'Abode of Aman llah) is a three-story palace located in Darulaman locality, about south-west of the center of Kabul, Afghanistan. Surrounding the palace are the following buildin ...

, National Museum of Afghanistan, and Tajbeg Palace. However, in 1929, Amanullah Khan abdicated after Habibullah Kalakani took over authority. As a result, his planned city was never fully completed and it never became a capital city. In summary The existing buildings continued to be in official use. Since 2015, the Afghan parliament building is also based in Darulaman. A

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

called Omid-e Sabz was built and opened in the 2010s about 3 km west from Darulaman.

References

Neighborhoods of Kabul Planned capitals Proposed populated places {{Kabul-geo-stub

See also

References