Kabul Zoo

A small, modest zoo on the south bank of the Kabul river, dating back to the late 1960s, with a few dozen animals — bears, leopards, monkeys, deer, birds of prey. The place has been through almost everything Kabul itself has: war damage, looting, near-starvation of the animals in the 1990s, gradual rebuilding through international donations in the 2000s.

It is not a great zoo by international standards. It is, however, an extraordinary cultural fixture — one of the few public spaces in Kabul where families with small children gather on a Friday afternoon. Visit for the people-watching as much as the animals.

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A story
The zoo's most famous resident was Marjan, a lion who survived the civil war despite being blinded in one eye by a grenade thrown into his enclosure by a man whose brother he had killed. Marjan died of old age in 2002 and became a national symbol; a bronze statue of him stands at the zoo entrance, and Kabuli parents still bring their children to point out where he lived.

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