Bagh-e Babur, Kabul

The Garden of Babur (locally called Bagh-e Babur, Persian: باغ بابر‎ / bāġ-e bābur) is a historic park in Kabul, Afghanistan, and also the last resting-place of the first Mughal emperor Babur. The garden are thought to have been developed around 1528 AD (935 AH) when Babur gave orders for the construction of an "avenue garden" in Kabul, described in some detail in his memoirs, the Baburnama. It was the tradition of Moghul princes to develop sites for recreation and pleasure during their lifetime, and choose one of these as a last resting-place. The site continued to be of significance to Babur's successors, Jehangir and his step-mother, Empress Ruqaiya Sultan Begum (Babur's granddaughter)[1] made a pilgrimage to the site in 1607 AD (1016 AH) when he ordered that all gardens in Kabul be surrounded by walls, that a prayer platform be laid in front of Babur's grave, and an inscribed headstone placed at its head. During the visit of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in 1638 (1047 AH) a marble screen was erected around tomb of his foster-mother, Ruqaiya Sultan Begum,[2] and a mosque built on the terrace below. There are accounts from the time of the visit to the site of Shah Jahan in 1638 (1047AH) of a stone water-channel that ran between an avenue of trees from the terrace below the mosque, with pools at certain intervals.

Bagh-e Babur Garden (built 1528 onward) The Bagh-e Babur garden is the final resting place of the first Mughal Emperor, Babur. Although present-day Afghanistan was not Babur's original homeland (he was born in Ferghana in present-day Uzbekistan), he felt sufficiently enamoured of Kabul that he desired to be buried here. When Babur died in 1530 he was initially buried in Agra against his wishes. Between 1539 and 1544 Sher Shah Suri, a rival of Babur's son Humayun, fulfilled his wishes and interred him at Babur's Garden. The headstone placed on his grave read "If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this."