88 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by P. O. Crawford 



THE FORT OF BALA HISSAR, WHICH CROWNS A HEIGHT OF 150 FEET, COMMANDING 



'HIE PLAIN ON WHICH IS BUILT THE CITY OF KABUL 



The Bala Hissar was partially destroyed forty years ago by the Amir Abdur Rahman. It 



has never been restored. 



he even supervises much of its commerce. 

 He also owns and censors the only news- 

 paper printed in all Afghanistan. Inci- 

 dentally, he keeps 58 automobiles, and 

 he never walks. Even from one palace 

 to another, he goes by motor over short 

 pieces of road built especially for his 

 pleasure. 



From the World War, though he took 

 no active part in it, the Amir emerged 

 with singular profits. His old and once 

 rival neighbors, Great Britain and Russia, 



drawn together as allies in the world con- 

 flict, left him a free hand, and in 191 9 

 Great Britain officially recognized the 

 political independence of this much-buf- 

 feted buffer State, to whose rulers she 

 had so long paid a fat annuity. 



With an area of 245,000 square miles, 

 Afghanistan is, next to Tibet, the largest 

 country in the world that is practically 

 closed to the citizens of other nations. 

 But political life at wary, alert Kabul is 

 in sharp contrast to the meditative seclu- 



