A rare plan of the ill-fated first British occupation of Kabul

An important town plan of Kabul, depicting the Balar Hissar fort, Babi Bagh (Babur's garden), Timur Shah Tomb, Arched Bazar, New Cantonment (with the Envoy's Palace) and the 1839 British army head quarters.

The map was published just before the East India Company army evacuated from Kabul on 6th January 1842, in the midst of the brutally cold Afghan winter, attempting to reach the British garrison at Jalalabad, 90 miles away. The 4,500-strong army and 12,000 camp followers were constantly harassed by Afghan forces, until the last organised remnants made a last stand at Gandamak on the 13th. Only one British officer, Assistant Surgeon William Brydon, evaded death or capture and reached Jalalabad. The commanding officer, Major-General William George Keith Elphinstone CB (1782 - 1842), died an Afghan prisoner.