BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — The Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statues in early 2001 shocked the world and highlighted their hard-line regime, toppled soon after in a U.S.-led invasion.

In this picture taken on March 3, 2021 a policeman patrols at the site of the Buddhas of Bamiyan statues, which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, in Bamiyan province.

The entire Bamiyan Valley is on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. A video recorded recently in Afghanistan shows Taliban gunmen using the remnants of the Bamiyan Buddhas for target practice.

Under debate, right now, is the question of how and whether the statues should be rebuilt. Little remains of the stucco coat and sculpted stone that gave the Buddhas of Bamiyan their definition.

When the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan destroyed two 1,600-year-old Buddha statues lining Bamiyan Valley’s soaring cliffs, the world shook with shock at the demise of such huge ...

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — Here is a reminder to someone with the initials A.B., who on March 8 climbed inside the cliff out of which Bamiyan’s two giant Buddhas were carved 1,500 years ago.

7 The site of the Bamiyan Buddhas on December 7, 1997. 8 An explosion rips apart one of the Buddhas in March 2001. 9 Taliban militants stand amid the rubble of the destroyed treasures on March 26 ...

The Bamiyan Valley, about 260 kilometers (160 miles) west of Kabul at an altitude of some 8,000 feet (2440 meters), once formed a branch of the Silk Road, which contributed to the diffusion of ...

Drawing on organic material in the clay layers in the rubble of the destroyed Buddhas, Emmerling’s team used mass spectrometry analysis to date the smaller Buddha to between A.D. 544 and A.D ...

Our textbook said the taller Bamiyan Buddha topped 175 feet. There couldn’t have been more than a couple of buildings that high in all of Calcutta in the 1970s.

Rebuilding The Bamiyan Buddhas Published Dec 30, 2001 at 7:00 PM EST Updated Mar 13, 2010 at 6:02 PM EST By Babak Dehghanpisheh Newsweek Is A Trust Project Member ...