Bagh-e Babur Garden

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 enamored 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.” El jardín Bagh-e Babur es el lugar de descanso final del primer emperador mogol, Babur. Aunque el Afganistán actual no era la patria original de Babur (nació en Ferghana en el actual Uzbekistán), se sintió lo suficientemente enamorado de Kabul como para desear ser enterrado allí. Cuando Babur murió en 1530, inicialmente fue enterrado en Agra, en contra de sus deseos. Entre 1539 y 1544, Sher Shah Suri, rival del hijo de Babur, Humayun, decidió cumplir sus deseos y enterrarlo en el Jardín de Babur. En la lápida colocada sobre su tumba está escrito lo siguiente: “Si hay un paraíso en la tierra, es esto, es esto, es esto”. The garden was laid out as a series of 15 stepped terraces on a hillside in southwest Kabul. Its axis points toward Mecca. Babur's grave is located on the fourteenth terrace and was originally surrounded by a screen of white marble. Although the screen was destroyed by warfare and vandalism in the 20th century, it was rebuilt between 2002-06 by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture follownig a drawing by Charles Masson in the 19th century. Southwest of the grave, on the next lower terrace, Shah Jahan built a small mosque in 1645-46. He also rebuilt the water channels that flow through the central axis of the garden, and added a caravanserai marketplace at the base of the garden.