Bagram

File:AsokaKandahar.jpg and Aramaic) by Emperor Ashoka, from Kandahar - Afghan National Museum. (Click image for translation).]]

{{Main|Ancient Kapisa|Alexandria on the Caucasus|Treasure of Begram}}

The ancient city of Kapisi is identified with present-day Bagram. The figures of ancient Buddhist and Hindu sculptures show that the city was initially ruled by Indic people who have either migrated or intermingled with the Iranian populations who moved into the region like Kambojas from Bactria.

While the Diadochi were warring amongst themselves, the Mauryan Empire was developing in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The founder of the empire, Chandragupta Maurya, confronted a Macedonian invasion force led by Seleucus I in 305 BC and following a brief conflict, an agreement was reached as Seleucus ceded Gandhara and Arachosia (centered on ancient Kandahar) and areas south of Bagram (corresponding to the extreme south-east of modern Afghanistan) to the Mauryans. During the 120 years of the Mauryans in southern Afghanistan, Buddhism was introduced and eventually become a major religion alongside Zoroastrianism and local pagan beliefs. Mauryan punch-marked coins have been discovered at Begram and Mir Zakah, indicating early trade or administrative presence in the region.{{cite book |last1=Ball |first1=Warwick |last2=Gardin |first2=Jean-Claude |title=Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan, Vol. I |publisher=DAFA (Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan) |page=55–56, 184 |year=1982}}

Bagram became the capital of the Kushan Empire in the first century. The "Bagram treasure" as it has been called, is indicative of intense commercial exchanges between all the cultural centers of the classical time, with the Kushan empire at the junction of the land and sea trade between the east and west. However, the works of art found in Bagram, such as the Begram ivories, are either quite purely Hellenistic, Roman, Chinese or Indian, with only little indications of the cultural syncretism found in Greco-Buddhist art.

The Islamic conquest of Afghanistan and the adjoining Pashtun region began in seventh century right after conquest of Persia. However, the complete Islamization of Afghanistan wasn't achieved until the Ghaznavid rule. The modern-day town is believed to be founded by Babur at the site of the ancient city.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tfE6DwAAQBAJ|last1=Bhattacharya|first1=Avijeet|title=Journeys on the Silk Road Through Ages|date=11 October 2017|publisher=Zorba|pages=192|isbn=9789386407818|access-date=19 January 2018}} In Babur's memoirs, the Baburnama, the emphasis of his visit in 1519 is on the colony of Hindu ascetics at Gurh Kattri (Kur Katri), who fascinated him.Losty, J. P. Roy, Malini (eds), Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire, pp. 42-43, 2013, British Library, {{ISBN|0712358706}}, 9780712358705

File:AfghanischeKinder.jpg

Bagram hosts the strategic Bagram Airfield, from which most US air activity in Afghanistan took place. The runway was built in 1976, and it was a Soviet air base from 1979 to 1989. There was also a Provincial Reconstruction Team when the US were present in Afghanistan and implemented their counter-insurgency strategy.{{Cite web|title=Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs)|url=http://www.understandingwar.org/provincial-reconstruction-teams-prts|access-date=2021-07-02|website=Institute for the Study of War|language=en}}

Bagram is also the location of the Parwan Detention Facility; this detention facility was the last prison in Afghanistan under management of the US. It was handed back to the Afghan government on 25 March 2013.Aljazeera news: [http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/03/201332534437116216.html US hands over Bagram prison to Afghanistan], 25 March 2013 The detention centre had earlier come into the attention of the news media as it was claimed that prisoners were tortured (see the article Bagram torture and prisoner abuse). At the time of the hand-over of the facility, human-rights groups like Amnesty International have raised concerns about the treatment of prisoners there.

On December 21, 2015, Bagram was the site of a suicide bombing killing 6 people.{{cite web|last1=Popalzai|first1=Masoud|last2=Starr|first2=Barbara|title=6 U.S. troops killed in motorcycle bomb attack in Afghanistan, officials say|date=21 December 2015 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/21/asia/nato-members-killed-bagram-afghanistan/|publisher=CNN|access-date=21 December 2015}}

On July 1, 2021, US troops departed from the air base, abandoning the outpost over to the Afghan government after 20 years. According to the Afghan commander at the time, the US evacuated the base during the night without any previous official notice to the Afghan army.{{cite news|title=US left Bagram Airbase at night with no notice, Afghan commander says |date=6 July 2021 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57682290 |publisher=BBC|access-date=2022-06-16}}

File:Storm clouds at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.jpg mountain range creates a harsh climate ranging from more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer to below-freezing temperatures in the winter.]]

File:Bagram blanketed in snow.jpg

According to the Köppen climate classification system, Bagram has a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dsa) with brief, but cold winters and long, hot and dry summers. Precipitation is most likely between the months of October and April. Dust storms and sand storms occur frequently during certain times of the year{{cite web|url=https://militarybases.com/overseas/afghanistan/bagram/|title= Bagram Air Base in Parvan Province, Afghanistan|accessdate=20 October 2022}} and the city is often blanketed by snow in winter months. The annual mean temperature is {{convert|12.0|°C|1}}

{{Weather box

| width = auto

| metric first = yes

| single line = yes

| location = Bagram

| Jan high C = 3.5

| Feb high C = 4.1

| Mar high C = 11.1

| Apr high C = 18.2

| May high C = 24.6

| Jun high C = 29.6

| Jul high C = 32.6

| Aug high C = 31.8

| Sep high C = 27.6

| Oct high C = 21.0

| Nov high C = 12.9

| Dec high C = 7.2

| Jan mean C = -2.5

| Feb mean C = -1.3

| Mar mean C = 4.8

| Apr mean C = 11.3

| May mean C = 17.4

| Jun mean C = 22.3

| Jul mean C = 25.5

| Aug mean C = 24.7

| Sep mean C = 20.7

| Oct mean C = 14.4

| Nov mean C = 6.3

| Dec mean C = 0.8

| Jan low C = -8.5

| Feb low C = -6.7

| Mar low C = -1.5

| Apr low C = 4.4

| May low C = 10.1

| Jun low C = 15.0

| Jul low C = 18.3

| Aug low C = 17.6

| Sep low C = 13.7

| Oct low C = 7.7

| Nov low C = -0.4

| Dec low C = -5.6

| Jan precipitation mm = 50

| Feb precipitation mm = 72

| Mar precipitation mm = 73

| Apr precipitation mm = 51

| May precipitation mm = 23

| Jun precipitation mm = 6

| Jul precipitation mm = 2

| Aug precipitation mm = 1

| Sep precipitation mm = 3

| Oct precipitation mm = 9

| Nov precipitation mm = 20

| Dec precipitation mm = 29

| source = Climate-Data.org{{cite web|url= https://en.climate-data.org/asia/afghanistan/parwan/%d9%88%d9%84%d8%b3%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%84%db%8c-%d8%a8%da%af%d8%b1%d8%a7%d9%85-bagram-1058667/

| title = Climate: Bagram — Climate-Data.org

| access-date = 3 September 2022}}}}

• Bagram District
• Parwan Province

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, Including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang. Alexander Cunningham. Trübner and Co., London. Complete and unabridged reprint (2006): Low Price Publications, Delhi.
• Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul (2008). Eds., Friedrik Hiebert and Pierre Cambon. National Geographic, Washington, D.C. {{ISBN|978-1-4262-0374-9}}.

{{Commons category}}

{{Wikivoyage|Bagram}}

• [http://www.aims.org.af/maps/district/parwan/bagram.pdf Map of Bagram and the surrounding area] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615080906/http://www.aims.org.af/maps/district/parwan/bagram.pdf |date=2011-06-15 }}, Afghanistan Information Management Service (AIMS)
• Human Rights First; [https://web.archive.org/web/20101224123455/http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/HRF-Undue-Process-Afghanistan-web.pdf Undue Process: An Examination of Detention and Trials of Bagram Detainees in Afghanistan in April 2009 (2009)]
• Human Rights First; [https://web.archive.org/web/20100414211437/http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/USLS-080409-arbitrary-justice-report.pdf Arbitrary Justice: Trial of Guantánamo and Bagram Detainees in Afghanistan (2008)]

{{Parwan Province}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Populated places in Parwan Province

Category:Populated places along the Silk Road