Bala-Hissar, und der königliche Palast zu Kabul

Original lithograph made by Bachmann in 1843, published in Berlin, showing a view of the Bala Hisar fortress and the royal palace of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. The composition presents the fortress from an exterior perspective. In the foreground appear human figures with horses.

The Bala Hisar fortress occupies an elevated position to the south of the city of Kabul, serving at this time as the seat of political power. The engraving forms part of the representations made during expeditions and journeys through Central Asia in the first half of the 19th century, when Kabul became an object of visual documentation by European artists and travellers.

The dimensions of the image are 11.8 x 17.4 cm, while the full sheet measures 20.6 x 26.2 cm. The German geographer Carl Ritter published works on Asia in Berlin that included this type of illustration. Bachmann’s work documents the appearance of these constructions at a specific historical moment, before the later urban transformations.