Kabul (IINA) – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday launched restoration work at Kabul’s historic Darul Aman Palace, whose bombed out ruins have long symbolized the suffering of Afghan people caused by decades of conflict, AFP reported.

The once-grand hilltop palace at the edge of Kabul was also the venue of Ghani’s cabinet meeting on Monday, the first such official gathering there in nearly a century.

The building’s lion-headed buttresses are broken, its colonnades pockmarked by bullets, and the metal sheets of its roof crumpled.

Up to $20 million will be spent on restoring the former glory of the palace, built by Afghan King Amanullah Khan in the 1920s, Ghani’s office said, calling the project a symbol of national pride.
“Today we are returning to our past… to set the foundation for our future,” Ghani said at the inauguration of the project, adding: “We are determined to reconstruct the historical structure from the budget of the Afghan government.”

The palace fell victim to the carnage of the early 1990s as rival mujahideen groups fought for power following the fall of a Soviet-backed regime after Moscow withdrew its troops from Afghanistan.