Gardēz

Gardez lies in a high basin watered by the Gardez River, at the junction of routes connecting Ghazni, Kabul and the valleys leading toward India. Hills rising from the basin offer natural defensive positions, and the Bala Hissar fortress overlooks the old town. For more than a century Gardez was the centre of a small Kharijite principality before its incorporation into the Ghaznavid realm. In the sixteenth century it was a Mughal administrative seat, noted by Babur for its multistorey houses.