| Kabul Serena Hotel | |
|---|---|
 The inner garden | |
  Location within Afghanistan | |
| General information | |
| Location | District 2, Kabul, Afghanistan |
| Coordinates | 34°31′14″N69°10′41″E / 34.52056°N 69.17806°E |
| Opening | 1945; Reopened; November 8, 2005 |
| Owner | Government of Afghanistan |
| Management | Serena Hotels |
| Design and construction | |
| Developer | Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 177 |
Kabul Serena Hotel is a luxury hotel in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan. [1]
The property was built in 1945 as the Kabul Hotel. [2]
The ruined hotel was completely rebuilt by the Aga Khan Development Network from 2002–2005 [2] to designs by Canadian architect Ramesh Khosla. [3] The renamed Kabul Serena Hotel was inaugurated by President Hamid Karzai and Aga Khan IV on November 8, 2005. [4] [5] [6]
Adolph Dubs, United States ambassador to Afghanistan, was killed at the hotel in 1979. [7]
The hotel was the target of terrorist attacks in January 2008 and March 2014. [8]
It is set in landscaped gardens, overlooking the city's Zarnegar Park. [9] The hotel has 177 rooms and suites. [10] It has several restaurants, including the Café Zarnegar serving Afghan cuisine, the Wild Rice fine-dining restaurant serving Southeast Asian cuisine, the Serena Pastry Shop serving homemade breads, cakes and patisseries and the Char Chata Lounge. [11] The hotel also includes Maisha Spa & Health Club, offering a fitness centre, a steam room, a sauna, and outdoor heated swimming pool. [12]
The design reflects classic Islamic architecture. [13]
Kabul is the capital city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. According to 2023 estimates, the population of Kabul was 4.95 million people. In contemporary times, the city has served as Afghanistan's political, cultural, and economical center, and rapid urbanisation has made Kabul the 75th-largest city in the world and the country's primate city.
Shah Karim al-Husayni, is the 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailis. He has held the position of Imam and the title of Aga Khan since 11 July, 1957, when, at the age of 20, he succeeded his grandfather, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III. The Aga Khan claims direct lineal descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, who is considered an Imam by Nizari Ismailis, and Ali's wife Fatima, Muhammad's daughter from his first marriage.
The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) is an architectural prize established by Aga Khan IV in 1977. It aims to identify and reward architectural concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of Muslim societies in the fields of contemporary design, social housing, community development and improvement, restoration, reuse and area conservation, as well as landscape design and improvement of the environment.
The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a network of private, non-denominational development agencies founded by the Aga Khan, with the primary focus of improving the quality of life in different regions of Asia and Africa.
The Panj, traditionally known as the Ochus River and also known as Pyandzh (derived from its Slavic word, is a river in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and is a tributary of the Amu Darya. The river is 921 kilometres long and has a basin area of 114,000 square kilometres. It forms a considerable part of the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border.
Prince Rahim Aga Khan is the second of the Aga Khan IV’s four children. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, he has been actively involved for many years in the governance of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).
Serena Hotels is a hospitality company which operates up-scale hotels and resorts in East Africa, Southern Africa and South Asia.
The Historic Cities Programme (HCP) of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) promotes the conservation and re-use of buildings and public spaces in historic cities of the Muslim world. HCP undertakes the restoration and rehabilitation of historic structures and public spaces in ways that can spur social, economic and cultural development. Individual projects go beyond technical restoration to address the questions of the social and environmental context, adaptive reuse, institutional sustainability and training. In several countries, local Aga Khan Cultural Service companies have been formed to implement projects under the supervision of the HCSP headquarters in Geneva.
Bagh-e Babur, also known as Gardens of Babur, is a historic site in Chelsatun, Kabul, Afghanistan. It is located in the Sher Darwaza hillside of District 5, southwest of Shahr-e Naw, or a short distance south of Kabul Zoo and north of Chihil Sutun. The gardens of Babur has several terraced buildings, a small mosque, and plenty of walking space. Visited by up to one million locals and foreign tourists a year, it is also where the tomb of the first Mughal emperor Babur is located. The park is thought to have been developed around 1504, when Babur gave orders for the construction of an "avenue garden" in Kabul, described in some detail in his memoirs, the Baburnama. It has been re-developed by various Afghan rulers since then.
Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development SA is a Swiss for-profit entity and international development finance institution which invests in countries of East Africa, West Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The 2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack was an attack on the gym of the Kabul Serena Hotel, in Kabul, Afghanistan on January 14, 2008, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility.
Qozidavlat Qoimdodov is a Tajikistani agrarian and politician. He served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Agriculture in Tajikistan.
Tourism in Afghanistan is regulated by the Ministry of Information and Culture. There are at least 350 tourism companies operating in Afghanistan. Tourism was at its peak before the 1978 Saur Revolution, which was followed by the decades of war. Between 2013 and 2016, Afghan embassies issued between 15,000 and 20,000 tourist visas annually.
The Kampala Serena Hotel is a hotel in Kampala, the capital and largest city of Uganda. The hotel is rated 5-stars by the Uganda Tourism Board.
Sayed Mansur Naderi is a leader of an Ismaili Shi'a community centred in Baghlan Province of Afghanistan. This community although Shia is smaller than the mainstream Twelver Shia community in Afghanistan.
The following is a timeline of the history of Kabul, Afghanistan.
The tomb of Timur Shah Durrani is located in Kabul and was built in 1815. It is the mausoleum of Timur Shah Durrani, who was the second ruler of the Durrani Empire, from 1772–1793. In 1776 Timur Shah chose Kabul as the capital of Afghanistan, which was Kandahar until then. Although he died in 1793 in Char Bagh, it wasn't until years later that the tomb was built. Timur Shah was later buried in here.
On 20 March 2014, Taliban militants carried out a mass shooting in the restaurant of the Kabul Serena Hotel, in Kabul, Afghanistan. The shooting, which took place in a hotel popular with foreigners and wealthy Afghans, killed nine civilians, including five foreigners. The attack was a shock to many as it took place in a heavily fortified area of Kabul.
Deh Afghanan is a downtown settlement in the center of Kabul, Afghanistan. It forms part of administrative District 2. It was once a small Pashtun village that spread across the Zarnegar Park open space, which was home of the Zarnegar Palace built under Emir Abdur Rahman Khan around the early 1900s. Today Zarnegar Park is the largest urban park in downtown Kabul and contains a mausoleum of Abdur Rahman. Deh Afghanan is one of the city's main commercial districts and is home to the municipality headquarters, several ministry buildings, banks, the Serena Hotel, and the Arg. In 2009 the Abdul Rahman Mosque was completed and opened in the area. It also contains a mix of historic housing next to modern business buildings.
Zarnegar Park is an urban park in the center of Kabul, Afghanistan, north of the river. The park, a popular landmark, has a green hill in its center with trees and decorated with flowers. A large pavilion is located in the park which serves as Abdur Rahman Khan's resting place.
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