4 August 2010 - Exhibited in the Chahar Suq Sistern, a site restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in the heart of Heart’s old city, the works - prints, watercolours, lithographs - reflect the impressions of European visitors to Afghanistan between 1830 and 1920.

“We intended to make the Afghan public aware of the material, and the British Library offered to supply it,” Jolyon Leslie, Chief Executive Officer for the AKTC, said about the origin of the exhibit which opened on Sunday.

The high resolution copies show familiar landmarks, such as the tomb of Babur, and some which have since disappeared – such as a watercolour depicting the Herat Mosalla Complex destroyed by the British fearing an imminent attack by Russian troops.

While many of the existing pieces in the collection had a military origin, the organizers insisted on displaying a mostly civilian view to the material. The entire collection will be handed over to the Afghan National Archives, as a resource for researchers.

“This has both a cultural and educational purpose,” said Jolyon Leslie, who announced the exhibition, which received 20,000 visitors when it was displayed earlier this year in Babur Garden in Kabul, may travel northeast next month to Balkh or Mazar-i-Sharif.

By Henri Burgard, UNAMA