Tajbeg Palace

Tajbeg Palace or Tapa-e-Tajbeg (Persian: قصر تاج بيگ‎‎; Pashto: د تاج بېګ ماڼۍ‎ Palace of the large crown) is a palace built in the 1920s and located about 10 miles (16 km) outside the centre of Kabul, Afghanistan. The stately mansion sits atop a knoll among foothills where the Afghan royal family once hunted and picnicked. It should not be confused with Darul Aman Palace, which is about 1.3 kilometres (0.81 mi) northeast from Tajbeg.

Built to house the Afghan royal family, Tajbeg Palace is one of the most impressive landmarks of "Darulaman," newly created during the era of Amānullāh Khān by a team of European architects in an attempt to establish a new seat of government and modernise Afghanistan, both of which ultimately failed when religious conservatives forced Amānullāh from power and halted his reforms, leaving the palace in ruins as it has been for much of its existence.

Taj (Persian: تاج ‎‎) means Crown and Beg, bäg - has been mentioned as early as in the Orkhon inscriptions (8th century AD) and is usually translated as "tribal leader". The dialect variations bäk, bek, bey, biy, bi, and pig all derive from the Old Turkic form. The actual origin of the word is still disputed.However, German Turkologist Gerhard Doerfer assessed the derivation from Iranian as superficially attractive but quite uncertain, and pointed out the possibility that the word may be genuinely Turkic. The Altaic Kings or princes such as Turkmens, Uzbek, Hazara had Bay or Beg in the end of their names, their wives Begum. The Timurid dynasty and Moguls made use of Beg (by men) like Qanandar Beg and Begum (by women) like Arjumand Banu Begum or Mumtaz Begum, Noor Jahan Begum etc.) although the Great Mogul in Kabul, Agra and Delhi preferred Persian titles such as Shah Jahan (King of the World), Alamgir (World Conqueror), Jahangir (World Conqueror).

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