Last Updated on: 1st May 2026, 01:01 pm
Situated at the heart of a strategic crossroads, Ghazni was once the center of a mighty empire that stretched from Iran to India. But due to waves of invasions, little remains of its once glorious past, except for a few notable landmarks like the Ghazni Minarets. In this guide to Ghazni, we’ll be covering what you can expect to see with a day in town.
With a few exceptions, Ghazni is one of those places that’s more historically important than it is visually interesting. So the more research you do, the more you’ll get out of your visit. We’ll be covering the basics of the city’s past throughout this guide.
Conveniently, Ghazni is situated just a few hours outside of Kabul on the way to Kandahar, making it an ideal stop for those on their way further south.
For more information on transport and accommodation, be sure to check the end of the article.
Also note that foreigners are expected to visit the historical sites in the company of someone from the local government, which you can also learn more about below.
The Mausoleum of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni
Starting in the late afternoon, my guide from the Ministry of Information & Culture came to meet me at my hotel, and we headed out to a busy intersection to flag down a taxi driver.
Our first stop was a fitting one, as it’s directly tied to the birth of Ghazni’s most prosperous historical era: the Mausoleum of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni.
Mahmud of Ghazni (r. 998-1030) was born a mamluk, meaning that he was Turkic slave warrior of the Samanid Empire. But in 977, his father Sabuktigin managed to overthrow the Samanids and found a powerful new kingdom: the Ghaznavid Empire, which lasted until 1186.
Mahmud was the third leader of the empire and also its most influential. At its peak, the Ghaznavid Empire would control a vast territory, stretching from northeastern Iran to northwest India, and also including parts of modern-day Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
Sultan Mahmud’s accomplishments weren’t just militaristic, however, but cultural.
Though the Ghaznavids were of Turkic slave-soldier origin, the empire was culturally Persianate. And Mahmud of Ghazni played an important role in fostering Persian art and poetry.
Some major figures associated with the Ghaznavid court during Mahmud’s reign were the scholar and polymath Al-Biruni, along with the poet Ferdowsi.
Ferdowsi was the composer of the Shahnameh, which is still regarded as the Persian national epic. Though he mostly finished it during the previous Samanid era, he revised and expanded it during the Ghaznavid era, even including passages of praise to Sultan Mahmud.
But according to legend, perhaps due to various differences between Ferdowsi, a Persian Shia who admired Iran’s pre-Islamic past, and Mahmud, a staunchly Sunni Turk, the sultan ultimately declined to pay the poet for his efforts.
The Ghazni Minarets
By far, Ghazni’s most important historical site is the Ghazni Minarets. Also known as the ‘Towers of Victory,’ the two surviving minarets stand about 600 m apart. For those who haven’t been, the total number isn’t always obvious from photographs.
The one to the northeast (further away from the Citadel) is the Mas’ud III Minaret, built by the monarch of the same name sometime during his reign (1099–1115 AD).
It originally would’ve stood within a larger mosque complex. And while we’re not entirely sure, it was likely constructed to commemorate a military victory. Or perhaps to celebrate the glory of the Ghaznavid Empire as a whole.
One of the reasons why the minaret is so iconic is its unique shape. It was largely built of baked brick in the shape of an eight-sided star.
But what stands today is only about half of the original construction. A long and narrow cylindrical portion once topped the base, bringing it to a total height of about 44 m.
The cylinder, however, toppled in a 1902 earthquake, with the surviving tower now standing at 21 m.
The Mas’ud III Minaret is now topped with protective roofing that almost looks like it was part of the original design.
The pointed top reminded me of Seljuk architecture that I’d seen in Turkey. And that’s fitting, as Mas’ud III was actually married to a Seljuk princess,
The minaret is decorated in floral and geometric motifs along with calligraphy in the Kufic script. Along with Quranic verses, the names of Mas’ud III and the Prophet Muhammad are mentioned, along with various imams and caliphs.
While the area surrounding the Mas’ud III Minaret is mostly an empty and open plane, you’ll find cemeteries and mausoleums scattered about the area.
I also noticed the ruins of a sizable brick building in the distance, which may have once been the monarch’s royal palace.
Seeing the open plane separating the two minarets is somewhat eerie, as the empty space was likely once occupied with various buildings before wave after wave of invasion razed the city to the ground.
Continuing further west, we arrived at the other ‘Tower of Victory,’ the Bahram Shah Minaret. Bahram Shah (r. 1118–1157) was Masud’s son, taking the throne after a four-year internal power struggle following his father’s death.
But he needed the assistance of the Seljuks to achieve this, and so, during his reign, the Ghaznavids became vassals of the Great Seljuk Empire.
It was also under Bahram Shah’s reign that Ghazni was sacked by the Ghorids, forcing Bahram to flee to Lahore.
But after the Seljuks helped defeat Ala al-Din Husayn of the Ghorids, Bahram would ultimately return to what was left of Ghazni until his death in 1157. The empire, however, would fall again to the Ghorids a few decades later and ultimately collapse.
And less than a century after that, in 1221-22, Ghazni would be ravaged by the Mongols. That likely explains why so little remains of such a historically important city.
Stylistically, the Bahram Shah Minaret looks much like its predecessor, albeit with less elaborate decoration. It stands at 20 m high.
The Ghazni Citadel
A bit further southwest is the Ghazni Citadel. My driver and guide parked just past the entrance gate, telling me to explore for as long as I liked.
Though a modern town now surrounds it, I happened to be the only one exploring the fortress at the time of my visit.
A fortress likely stood here since as early as the Kushan era (1st-4th centuries AD). And in the 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang passed through the area and remarked in his journal how well fortified the city was.
Most of the ruined buildings we can see today, however, were largely reconstructed following the Mongol invasion.
Even after Ghazni was largely destroyed, it would be captured by subsequent empires over the next several centuries, as its location was highly strategic. And it seems like the Citadel essentially functioned as the city throughout these eras.
Ghazni was captured by Timur in the late 14th century and then ruled by his descendants until the early 16th century. One of these descendants was Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire.
And throughout the Mughal era, this citadel was a stop along routes connecting Central Asia with the Indian Subcontinent.
Later in the 18th century, Ghazni fell under the control of the Durrani Empire, and the citadel continued to serve as an important regional fortress.
And the Ghazni Citadel was even host to the Battle of Ghazni in the first Anglo-Afghan War in 1839.
Situated atop a 50 m-high hill, the Ghazni Citadel once had as many as 32 towers. But only a handful of intact towers remain today, with one tower’s collapse having been infamously caught on video in 2019.
Despite its poor state of preservation, one can still get a sense of what a vast and elaborate citadel this would’ve been in its prime.
And the views from the hilltop of the surrounding modern city are excellent – especially around sunset.
Reaching the opposite end of the fortress, I encountered a relic of a much more recent historical era: a Soviet tank.
The Afghan-Soviet War lasted from 1979–1989. And given its strategic location between Kabul and Kandahar, Ghazni was hotly contested throughout the bloody conflict.
While I’ve been unable to come across info on this tank specifically, as we’ll cover shortly, it’s just one of dozens to be found around modern Ghazni today.
As I walked around the area, the Call to Prayer began playing from the loudspeakers of the nearby mosques. And the combination of these specific sights and sounds felt so quintessentially Afghan.
I explored the citadel for a while more, making sure that I hadn’t missed anything. Despite its sorry state, it’s still a fascinating historical relic.
And who knows, should tourism in Afghanistan pick up one day, perhaps we’ll someday see the Ghazni Citadel completely rebuilt like the one in Herat.
The Ghazni National Museum
For such a historically important city, it’s not a surprise that Ghazni has a regional museum. But on the way there, I walked through the open-air Ghazni Tank Museum, which is home to an array of both Soviet and US tanks. They don’t call Afghanistan the ‘Graveyard of Empires’ for nothing!
The Ghazni National Museum is situated in the same compound as local government offices like the Ministry of Information & Culture.
It’s free to enter, and you should be able to visit upon arriving here to obtain your local permit. But as my local contact settled the permit for me in advance (more below), we visited the museum later on my final morning in town before I headed onward to Kandahar.
The museum is small and comprised of only one room, yet it hosts an impressive collection of pieces.
Unfortunately, however, the informational placards are entirely in Dari. I’ve been able to translate some of them using AI, though not all.
The most eye-catching pieces on display here are various decorative marble slabs from the Ghaznavid era, including those that belonged to the former royal mosque complex of Mas’ud III.
Some of the pottery on display, meanwhile, dates from the Timurid period. But I didn’t get clear enough shots of all of the placards.
You can also find additional pieces from Ghazni at the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, which you can learn more about in our dedicated guide.
After the main museum, some staff members invited me to check out a little art gallery featuring works of local artists that’s located in one of their offices.
I was a bit surprised to see full depictions of the human form, which is something technically forbidden in Afghanistan these days. And at a Taliban office, no less!
Given its totalitarian nature, everything from the national government to the police force to local city offices like this one are officially Taliban nowadays.
And I suspect that many local officials around the country were performing the same duties under the previous regime. They were then, perhaps, requested to pledge loyalty to the Taliban and grow out their beards in order to continue their careers.
Tepe Sardar
Thus far, we’ve mostly discussed historical Ghazni from the Ghaznavid Empire onward. But there’s yet one more historical site in town that far predates it.
Located atop a large hill to the northeast of central Ghazni, Tepe Sardar is home to the ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery and stupa.
Like everything else in this guide to Ghazni, entrance is free, and you simply show up and walk up the hill. While tricky to find, my local guide was fortunately able to direct our taxi driver.
Tepe Sardar dates to around the 3rd century AD during the Kushan era. Originally, it was heavily inspired by Hellenistic art, making its style of sculpture and architecture similar to that of nearby Gandhara.
The monastery was largely destroyed in the 7th century, however – perhaps at the hands of Muslim invaders.
But the local Buddhist community later rebuilt it on an even larger scale, fortifying the monastery to protect it from future attacks.
Interestingly, this later period of Tepe Sardar revealed a strong influence from both Tang dynasty China and the Gupta art of India.
But ultimately, Tepe Sardar was destroyed once again in the late 8th century, and it never recovered.
Though a lot of impressive sculptures and artifacts were uncovered here by the Italian Archaeological Mission and once displayed at the National Museum in Kabul, it’s unclear where they are now.
Given its ruined state, a lot of imagination is required to make sense of what you see here. But having already been to locations like Takht Bhai and Shewaki Stupa, it wasn’t that hard to picture similar structures standing atop this hill.
Additional Info
Most people will probably be getting to Ghazni from Kabul. Coming from Kabul, you’ll first want to head to the place called ‘Bamyan Terminal’ on Google Maps.
Getting to the terminal is a journey in its own right. It takes about 30-40 minutes from the Shar-e Naw district, and you should expect to pay 4-500 AFN to get there.
As the name suggests, this is the same terminal that has shared taxis to Bamyan. That means that you can feasibly reach Ghazni from Bamyan on the same day by transferring at the terminal. Just be sure to start early.
The ride from Kabul to Ghazni lasts roughly two hours. Though as always with shared taxis, you’ll likely have to first wait around for the car to fill up with passengers.
I paid 600 AFN for the journey, which included a bit extra to sit in the front seat.
Arriving in Ghazni, the city’s terminal was a bit out of town, and I then had to pay another 200 AFN for a private taxi to take me to Farkhi Hotel.
When traveling through Afghanistan, most cities outside of Kabul don’t have any hotels that can be booked online. But oftentimes, you can figure out their phone number and contact them via WhatsApp to make a reservation.
But in the case of Ghazni, I wasn’t able to do even that. I’d seen Hotel Farkhi recommended online by other foreign travelers, but I couldn’t come across a phone number. So my only option was to just show up and hope they’d have a room.
Fortunately, everything turned out fine. There was even one younger staff member there who spoke some English and was very helpful. I was only staying one night and I paid 1500 AFN.
In comparison with other hotels in Afghanistan that cost the exact same price, such as those in Bamyan or Mazar-i-Sharif, Hotel Farkhi was rather subpar.
On the one hand, Farkhi is also a popular restaurant, so I never had to go out to find food. But my room lacked a private bathroom, and the bathroom was shared with not only other hotel guests but also restaurant patrons.
Speaking of the restaurant patrons, Farkhi seems to be one of the most popular hangout spots for the local Taliban. In fact, it seemed like the Taliban made up a majority of their clientele – obvious from the large rifles they brought with them to the restaurant.
I sometimes got strange looks as I was coming in and out of my room, but for the most part, they didn’t pay me much attention as I sat amongst them for my meals.
With that said, I did receive a surprise visit in the evening from a few Taliban guards. They came to my door with a hotel staff member, and while I’m not sure what they wanted, I immediately presented my passport and permit. They seemed satisfied, gave me a smile, and left.
The Wifi at Hotel Farkhi barely worked, while my Afghan SIM card hardly worked in the room, either. Therefore, it would be wise to prepare some offline entertainment before visiting Ghazni – and for that matter, Afghanistan as a whole.
When traveling around Afghanistan, foreign visitors always have to obtain local permits in any province where they spend the night (after getting the main permit in Kabul, of course). These are always obtained at the local Ministry of Information & Culture office.
Typically, upon obtaining the permit, foreigners are free to explore the area on their own (at least, that was the case at the time of my visit). But Ghazni is a bit different, and the local authorities don’t want foreigners exploring the sites unsupervised.
Rather than being escorted by an armed guard like in Old Balk or in Peshawar, Pakistan, you’ll simply be accompanied by a staff member from the Ministry office. At the time of my visit, this was completely free, as were all of the sites. The only thing I had to pay for was the taxi rides around town.
Presumably, the Ministry of Information & Culture would set you up with somebody after you show up at the office to obtain your permit. But in my case, I was recommended to contact a certain staff member, Mr. Hotak, in advance by the manager of my hotel in Bamyan.
Mr. Hotak even handled my local permit for me after I sent him my passport info via WhatsApp. So I didn’t need to visit the office immediately upon my arrival.
Everything worked out smoothly, but we had a couple of communication issues regarding the schedule. Anticipating only one full day in Ghazni, I got there extra early from Kabul (I wasn’t able to make it directly from Bamyan). But he waited to tell me in person that we’d be starting our explorations shortly before sunset in order to beat the heat.
Not only did I have hours to kill in my hotel room, but it also meant that we weren’t able to see everything in one evening. Fortunately, however, he kindly agreed to meet me again the next morning and accompany to the regional museum and to Tepe Sardar. And he also helped me find a shared taxi bound for Kandahar.
I’ve read reports of foreign travelers visiting Ghazni as a day trip from Kabul and avoiding the guide altogether. This would probably work, as all of the sites I visited were unstaffed (except for the Ghazni National Museum, of course, which is right next to the Ministry office).
But when considering your overall itinerary, if you plan to also visit Kandahar, it makes the most sense to spend a couple of nights in Ghazni along the way.