Visiting The Afghan National Museum (Kabul Museum)

The National Museum bears testimony to the traumas of the last two decades. Until 1992 it contained one of the finest collections of art and cultural artifacts in Asia: 100,000 pieces from two milleniums of Afghan history. During the fight for Kabul, mujahedeen armies occupied and looted the museum; the structure was shelled in 1993 and fire destroyed the roof and second floor. By the time the Taliban seized power, only a few thousand pieces remained; the museum’s staff had hidden away the best works. Then, in 2001, Taliban leaders ordered all art objects depicting the human form destroyed, and cadres set upon the remaining exhibits with axes and sledgehammers, ruining 2,500 more works. Also at this time the famous Buddhas were destroyed in Bamiyan (you can see Bamiyan and the remains of the Buddhas here).

But the museum, like much of Kabul, is struggling back to life. The two-story, gray concrete villa was rebuilt with Greek, Italian and American money in 2004. And, interestingly, the baksheesh brigade is nowhere in evidence in this area.

The friendly guards in front. They politely search you on the way in (to make sure you’re not a suicide bomber) and search you on the way out to make sure you’re not stealing some of the few remaining pieces…