Outside Arak are situated the Boistan and Gulistan palaces. While of the summer palaces, Shahrara (city’s adornment) lies about a mile to the north-west of the city, and a couple of miles further on lies Baghibala (high garden), which was the late Amir’s favourite summer palace and where he died. More to the west, and about eighteen miles out of the city, is the summer palace at Paghman, a green spot at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountains. South of Kabul, and about one and a half miles from the city, is Baber, where another summer residence has been built beside the tomb of Baber Shah, the first of the Moghul emperors, who was buried there in 1530. Six miles out in the same direction is Hindeki, where the present Amir has a summer palace, which he used before coming to the throne. A little to the south-west of Hindeki lies Kila Asham Khan, where the summer palace of the Queen-Sultana of the late Amir is situated. In the gardens outside Arak are two large salaam khana (audience chambers) which were built by the late Amir to afford room for large public durbars. These, in addition to the audience chambers proper, have smaller rooms attached to them, and the late Amir was in the habit of spending several days together in the new salaam khana, which is a handsome building. The Kabul climate is a good one, and very bracing. Situated as it is some seven thousand feet above sea level, the air is rare, and it is, of course, much colder than other places on the same latitude. At first, one experiences a little difficulty in breathing when walking uphill, and is inclined to doubt the efficiency of one’s lungs, but this wears off afterwards. I once climbed up the Hindu Kush to the limit of the snow in summer, and found the air very exhilarating and fresh; but I had to stop frequently to recover breath, and the air I breathed seemed altogether insufficient and not satisfying, like that at a lower altitude. Although there is usually very little rainfall, during two of the summers I spent in Kabul, thunder storms, with heavy downfalls of rain, were frequent. In these storms the flashes of lightning were almost continuous and the peals of thunder were deafening, and without cessation; but the electricity was expended on the heights close to the city, and there are very few cases on record of a house being struck.