Short answers, pulled from the story.
Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with an estimated population of 5,333,284 people. It has long been the country's political, cultural, and economic center, and rapid urbanization has made it the country's primate city.
Kabul is believed to be over 3,500 years old. It was mentioned at the time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and the Rigveda, composed between 2000 and 1500 BC, refers to a settlement called Kubha along the Kabul River.
Kabul gained the nickname Paris of Central Asia in the late 20th century, when it became a stop on the hippie trail for many Europeans and drew Western, American, and Japanese tourists. Its centrality and cultural importance as a nexus of ethnic groups reinforced the name.
Kabul became the capital of Afghanistan in 1776, during the reign of Timur Shah Durrani, who transferred the capital from Kandahar. The city had become part of the Durrani Empire in 1747 under Ahmad Shah Durrani.
Babur loved Kabul because he lived in it for 20 years, the people were loyal to him, and the weather suited him. The inscription on his tomb in Kabul carries a Persian couplet declaring that if there is a paradise on earth, it is this.
During the 1990s, mujahideen factions fought over Kabul in a period known locally as the Kabul Wars, after Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's party began shelling the city in 1992. At least 30,000 civilians were killed and about 80 percent of the city was destroyed by 1996, when the Taliban seized it.
Kabul was captured by the Taliban twice. The Taliban seized it on the 27th of September 1996, lost it to the Northern Alliance in November 2001 after a US-led invasion, and recaptured it on the 15th of August 2021 following the United States' withdrawal.
Kabul sits at an altitude of 1,791 meters above sea level in a narrow valley in the Hindu Kush mountains, bounded by the Kabul River in eastern Afghanistan. It is one of the highest capital cities in the world and lies roughly halfway between Istanbul and Hanoi.