The oldest settlements discovered in the country are the Bronze and Iron Age sites at Mundigak (c 3000-2000 BCE) near Kandahar. By the 3rd millennium BCE a tradition of monumental building was already well established and in subsequent millennia fortified towns with citadels surrounded by massive outer defensive walls appeared in strategic locations throughout the country.

Hellenistic architecture arrived with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 329-325 BCE; the remains of a Greek city founded soon after Alexander’s conquest have been excavated at Ai Khanoum on the northern border with Tajikistan.

The next major contribution to Afghanistan’s built heritage was made by the Kushan nomads from Central Asia, whose first capital was at Bagram, north of Kabul. What remains of the massive fortified terraced enclosure built by the Kushana to house their dynastic shrines at Surkh Kotal north of the Hindu Kush mountain range is sufficient to illustrate that architecture had by this time reached a significant level of development.

From the Kushana period (1st-4th centuries CE) onwards Buddhism became established as the dominant religion in Afghanistan. Many new types of Buddhist architecture began to appear and, whilst never conceived or perceived as works of art, Buddha images of this period reflect craftsmanship of the highest aesthetic quality. Another important Buddhist site from this period is the complex of stupas, monasteries and artificial cave complexes at Hadda near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. However, by far the best-known Buddhist site in Afghanistan is at Bamyan Valley in the central Hindu Kush, where between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE some 600 to 750 artificial caves were carved out of the cliffs on the northern side of the valley. The unfortunate fate of the two giant Buddha statues carved out of niches in these cliffs is all too well known.

With the coming of Islam in the 9th century, Islamic art and architecture quickly flourished. The oldest extant Islamic buildings are those of the mosque in Balkh, the oldest section of which was built using materials, techniques and styles associated with the Abbasid caliphate in Iraq. Thereafter distinctive regional variations began to emerge.

During the 11th and 12th centuries the Ghaznavid established Lashkhari Bazaar and Ghazni in southern Afghanistan as important administrative centres. Here Islamic architecture developed along monumental lines, with characteristic use of glazed tiles, terracotta decoration and inscriptions written in angular and cursive scripts. Today the most important extant example of this style is the late 12th-century minaret at Jam. Meanwhile in the west of the country the city of Herat grew steadily in importance after the Mongol conquests of the 13th century, becoming the capital of the Timurud Empire from the 15th century onwards. In subsequent generations splendid brick buildings were constructed here, decorated with copious amounts of glazed tiles, though sadly much of this important heritage was destroyed during the Russian and British incursions of the 19th century. More recently lack of maintenance has allowed most of the remaining buildings to fall into utter disrepair.

Notwithstanding these regional variations, the most popular style of monumental architecture remained the pure Islamic style, which originated between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq and subsequently spread throughout Central Asia. Palaces and mosques built in this style are domed, with a window design drawn from three different types - half moon, triangular or arched. In some regions the roofs are covered with wood, whilst in others (eg south east Afghanistan) they are made of bricks and covered with clay. Interiors are either covered with tiles or brightly painted with calligraphy or traditional designs. A typical extant example of this style is the Poli Khushti Mosque, near the Maiwand Monument in Kabul.

From the 17th century onwards Islamic architecture in Afghanistan became increasingly derivative. This may in part be attributed to the opening up of new sea routes which offered a faster and safer option than the older mountain roads, stemming the flow of money, ideas and cultural influences. From this point onwards too, architectural repairs and extensions were of increasingly poor quality.

During the late 19th century western art and architecture became popular with the royal court and the educated elite, leading to the introduction of western styles of domestic architecture in many urban areas. At the turn of the century, King Amir Abdullah Rahman (reigned 1880-1901) built an arg or walled palace along western lines and ‘European’ style homes began to appear throughout the capital, especially in New Town (Sharh e Nau). These were followed in the early years of the 20th century by a proliferation of verandahed British Indian-style residences (eg the National Archives building) and, after the Anglo-Afghan War of 1919-1929, by a preponderance of 18th century European neo-classical style edifices - King Amanullah Khan’s government buildings at Darulaman, eight kilometres south of Kabul city centre, being the best example.

From the 1950s onwards a number of Afghan architects went overseas to study in the Soviet Bloc and town planning experts from the USSR flew to Kabul to study city planning problems and suburban housing needs. The result of this growing Soviet architectural influence was the emergence of Socialist Realist design in many public buildings constructed during from the late 1950s onwards, notably the concrete apartment suburb of Macroyan in Kabul.

Outside the cities ordinary Afghans continue to live as they have done since time immemorial, in traditional dwellings fabricated according to many regional variations from stone, wood, unbaked clay or mud with straw plaster. In the rugged mountainous regions such houses are built in tiers, with the roof of one house forming the yard of another, in order to leave as much as possible of the flat, fertile river valleys for farmland. The inner courtyards of these houses, functioning to shield the women from outside view, are frequently decorated with hand-carved walnut wood eaves and panels. Hand-carved doors and window frames and wall and ceiling plaster incised and painted with flowers or pictures depicting daily life may also be found in many areas.

In Kabul such decorative wood carving is done by professionals, although with few apprentices this craft is at risk of dying out. The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has recently commissioned some instrument makers to do domestic architecture restoration work, and according to Osman Khiem Suleiman, Head of Architecture at Kabul Polytechnic Institute's Faculty of Construction, the Afghana Tarkonai Carpentry Shop is also training students in wood carving for the restoration of carved panels, window frames and doors. Suleiman also remarked that the Kabul Polytechnic Institute is currently using Nancy Hatch Dupree’s books about Afghanistan from the 1970s to teach history of architecture.

Today the growth of tent cities on the outskirts of the capital to provide temporary housing for returnees or internally displaced people offers a sad reminder of the devastation which has resulted from rocket attacks on housing areas.