Afghanistan Traditional Lime Plaster (Lime Render)

Gul Rahman Abdulrahimzai*, Hasib Salihi

Afghanistan has its own tradition in architecture, construction and construction materials. In traditional construction material s, lime, gypsum, ash and other local materials have been used vastly. Though these days manufactured and imported building materials are commonly used in the construction industry, lime is one of the traditional building materials which has been used for many centuries in Afghanistan. It has been used in building foundation, wet areas in ordinary plaster and decorative plaster works throughout the country. Remains of lime used in building could be found not only in historical buildings but also in common buildings in all parts of the country especially in the old cities of Herat, Ghazni and Kabul. In Kabul when Turquoise Mountain Foundation (TMF) was working in Murad khani Area (Part of the old Kabul city) they discovered application of lime as a main building material which was used in the Hamams (Traditional Bathhouse), room floors, under foundations and as final wall plaster on the external walls of courtyards. Lime used as final finish layer on external walls has unique characteristics; it is used on the external walls with a thickness of less than 10mm, has a white color, metallic break sound, sufficient compressive strength, water resistant properties and high durability properties. Samples from more than 150 years found in Murad Khani’s Great Serai still looked new with sufficient strength.