afghanistancomplex, Afghanistan’s answer to the Place de la Concorde. The Amir even
constructed a railway line linking Taj Beg to the Old City.
The main palace at Taj Beg was the Amir’s offices and a venue for
a future Parliament. The palace was vast, covering 5,400 square metres,
and, at 33 metres (108 ft) high, this three-storey building dominated the
skyline of southwestern Kabul. The exterior was of plain, dressed stone
but the interior was lavishly decorated with marble and lapis lazuli inlay.
To the west was a smaller palace built for Queen Soraya’s personal use.
Surrounding these palaces were formal gardens with fountains; beyond
lay government offices and, quixotically, a match factory. All these build-
ings were utterly inappropriate. Apart from being far too large for their
function, the high ceilings and stone and brick walls meant that in Kabul’s
bitter winters they were freezing cold, damp and dingy.
Amir ’Aman Allah Khan undertook a number of other infrastruc-
ture projects, including dams and irrigation schemes, but there was no
national development plan and responsibility for individual projects
was divided up between competing European nations. The French ran
the postal services, secured a monopoly over archaeological explor ation
and established Afghanistan’s first museum. France also opened the
’Amaniyya High School, where French teachers taught a French curricu-
lum in French. German engineers constructed dams, irrigation schemes,
took over construction of Dar al-’Aman, built the railway and supplied
The rusting remains of Amir’Aman Allah Khan’s trains today lie abandoned in the garden of
the National Museum. The train line was never intended for public transport but was purely
for the amusement of the royal family.