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Top Attractions in Kandahār

Shrine of the Cloak

The Shrine of the Cloak is located adjacent to the main mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It contains the Kerqa, a cloak believed to have been worn by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is therefore widely held to be one of the holiest Islamic sites in Afghanistan, and even considered by some as the "heart of Afghanistan". The buildings exteriors are of green marble from Lashkar Gah, with tiled surfaces and gilded archways. The cloak itself is locked away inside the mosque and is rarely seen. It has been guarded by the same family for over 250 years. Its guardians have traditionally only shown the cloak to recognized leaders of Afghanistan, although in times of great crisis such as natural disasters, it has been publicly displayed as a means of reassurance. The cloak was given to Amir Ahmad Shah Durrani by Amir Murad Beg of Bukhara in 1768 in order to solidify a treaty between the two leaders. An alternate account states that when Ahmad Shah had traveled to Bukhara, he saw the cloak of Muhammad. He then decided to take the artifact with him to Kandahar, and asked whether he could "borrow" the cloak from its keepers. They, worrying that he might try to remove it from Bukhara, told him it could not be taken from the city. Ahmad Shah then is said to have pointed to a heavy stela of stone firmly planted in the ground, saying that he would never take the cloak far from the stone. The keepers, gratified at his answer, handed him the cloak. Ahmad Shah then took the cloak, ordered the stone slab to be dug up, and carried them both back with him to Kandahar, where the stone now stands near his mazar . The cloak was last seen in public in 1996, when Mullah Omar, the up-and-coming leader of the Taliban, removed it from the shrine and donned the cloak while he stood atop a building, and in front of a large crowd of his followers. That symbolic act is commonly considered a key point in the rise of the Taliban, and Mullah Omar himself, associating him with both Ahmed Shah Durrani and the Prophet of Islam. Upon donning the cloak, the crowd began to shout "Amir al-Muminin", a title that Ayman al-Zawahiri still occasionally uses to refer to Mullah Omar in his radio addresses. Wahid Muzhda, an Afghan analyst and one-time high-ranking official in the Taliban foreign ministry, disputes Mullah Omar donning the cloak. "From what I know, from sources close to Omar, and from a chat with the keeper of the shrineOmar did not wear the cloak." Wahid Muzhdas doubts notwithstanding, in a New York Times piece from winter 2001, the current keeper of the Shrine, Qari Shawali, claimed that he not only allowed Mullah Omar to view the cloak, but that it was borrowed and removed from the Shrine in the spring of 1996 by Mullah Omar. This was the third time in his lifetime that a man attempted to look at, let alone don, the cloak.

Old Kandahar

Old Kandahar is a historical section of the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Its foundation was laid out by Alexander the Great in 330 BC and served as the local seat of power for many rulers in the last 2,000 years. It became part of many empires, including the Mauryans, Indo-Scythians, Sassanids, Arabs, Zunbils, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Timurids, Mughals, Safavids, Hotakis and others. It was one of the main cities of Arachosia, a historical region sitting between Greater Iran and the Indus Valley Civilization. The city has been a frequent target for conquest because of its strategic location in Southern Asia, controlling the main trade route linking the Indian subcontinent with the Middle East, Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. The city was often fought over by the Persians and the Mughals, until it was destroyed by Nader Shah and his Afsharid forces in 1738 after defeating Shah Hussain Hotak, the last Hotaki ruler. After the destruction of this old city all the remaining inhabitants were relocated to a nearby area which became known as "Naderabad" for a short time, named after Nader Shah of Mashad in Khorasan. By 1750, Ahmad Shah Durrani had laid out the current city of Kandahar and turned it into the capital of his Durrani Empire.

Kandahar

Kandahar or Qandahar is the second-largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 491,500 as of 2012. Formerly called Alexandria Arachosia, the city is named after Alexander the Great, who founded it in 329 BC around a small ancient Arachosian town. Kandahar is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at an altitude of 1,010 m above sea level. The Arghandab River runs along the west of the city. The city of Kandahar has a population of 557,118. It has 15 districts and a total land area of 27,337 hectares. The total number of dwellings in Kandahar is 61,902. Kandahar is one of the most culturally significant cities of the Pashtuns and has been their traditional seat of power for more than 200 years. It is a major trading center for sheep, wool, cotton, silk, felt, food grains, fresh and dried fruit, and tobacco. The region produces fine fruits, especially pomegranates and grapes, and the city has plants for canning, drying, and packing fruit, and is a major source of marijuana and hashish. The area is believed to be the birthplace of cannabis indica. Kandahar has an international airport and extensive road links with Lashkar Gah and Herat to the west, Ghazni and Kabul to the northeast, Tarinkot to the north, and Quetta in neighboring Balochistan to the south. The region around Kandahar is one of the oldest known human settlements. Alexander the Great had laid-out the foundation of what is now Old Kandahar in the 4th century BC and gave it the Ancient Greek name Αλεξάνδρεια Aραχωσίας (Alexandria of Arachosia). Many empires have long fought over the city due to its strategic location along the trade routes of southern, central and western Asia. In 1709, Mirwais Hotak made the region an independent kingdom and turned Kandahar into the capital of the Hotak dynasty. In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the last Afghan empire, made it the capital of modern Afghanistan. Since the 1978 Marxist revolution, the city has been a magnet for groups such as the Pakistan-based Haqqani network, Quetta Shura, Hezbi Islami, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups, many of which are believed to receive support from Pakistan's ISI spy network. From late 1994 to 2001, it served as the capital of the Taliban government until they were toppled by US-led NATO forces during Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2001 and replaced by the government of President Hamid Karzai.

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