3-052-394 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches in Afghanistan: the Minar Chakri, near Cabul, 1880. '[Our] view of the architectural monument called the Minar Chakri, near Cabul, is taken from Masson's drawing, given in the "Ariana Antiqua." About five or six miles south or south-east of the City of Cabul there is a group of topes; and near these are two columns known as the "Minar Chakri," and the "Surkh Minar." But Masson considers that these Minars are of the same age as the Topes, and that they belong to the Buddhist period. Hence they ought perhaps to be called stuphas; for "Minar" is the word given to the columns or towers of a Mohammedan mosque, from which the call to prayer is made'. The Minar-i Chakri was a pillar made of carved stones on an elevation of 16 kilometers southeast of Kabul in Afghanistan. Minar-i Chakri was built in the 1st century AD and was heavily damaged during the Afghan Civil war. In March 1988 it was destroyed by the Taliban regime. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.