Darul Aman Palace
Darul Aman Palace, meaning 'Abode of Peace' in Persian, is a majestic European neoclassical palace situated sixteen kilometers southwest of central Kabul. Built in the 1920s by King Amanullah Khan as part of his visionary modernization plan for Afghanistan, the grand 150-room palace suffered a tragic fate, being repeatedly gutted by fires, military coups, Soviet artillery strikes, and intense shelling during the 1990s civil war. Reduced to a bullet-riddled, roofless shell for over two decades, the hollow palace earned an eerie reputation as one of Kabul's most haunting landmarks. Local residents, guards, and urban explorers have long reported hearing phantom gunshots, weeping specters, unearthly screams echoing through hollow corridors at night, and ghostly figures standing in high window frames looking out over the capital.