Chil Zena ("Forty steps"), also Chilzina or Chehel Zina, is a mountainous outcrop at the western limit of the city of

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...

. Forty stone steps lead to the top of the outcrop, hence its name. It gives a commanding view on the city of

. Chil Zena was located on the northern side of the old citadel of

Old Kandahar Old Kandahar (locally known as Zorr Shaar; ps, زوړ ښار, , Old City, also Shahr-i-Kona in Dari) is a historical section of the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Many believe that there are hidden ancient treasures buried in and aroun ...

, destroyed by Nadir Shah Afshar of

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in 1738. The carving of the staircase was commissioned by the Emperor Babur. Chil Zena later received numerous inscriptions about the conquests of Babur (1526-1530), apparently carved by his son

Humayun Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad ( fa, ) (; 6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), better known by his regnal name, Humāyūn; (), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northe ...

. Chil Zena is well known for the discovery of the Indian Emperor

Ashoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, s ...

Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription The Kandahar Bilingual Rock Inscription, also known as the Kandahar Edict of Ashoka and less commonly as the Chehel Zina Edict, is an inscription in the Greek and Aramaic languages that dates back to 260 BCE and was carved by the Mauryan e ...

on the mountainside， which is still located on in an open-air compound on the mountainside. The presence of this inscription at Chil Zena helped confirm the presence of Greek populations in the vicinity in the 3rd century BCE, as well as the extent of Ashoka's control, which is therefore thought to have incorporated

and its region of

Arachosia Arachosia () is the Hellenized name of an ancient satrapy situated in the eastern parts of the Achaemenid empire. It was centred around the valley of the Arghandab River in modern-day southern Afghanistan, and extended as far east as the ...

References

Kandahar {{Afghanistan-stub