Taliban militants spent the early part of March 2001 systematically dynamiting two of Afghanistan's greatest historical and cultural treasures: the Buddhas of Bamiyan. The massive statues were carved ...

Twenty years after the destruction of the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas, all that remains are empty niches—and memories. The larger of the two Bamiyan Buddhas still sat in the central Afghan valley when ...

A French archaeological team looking for a giant Buddha thought to be buried close to Afghanistan’s destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas was forced to pack its bags on Sunday after a local military commander ...

When the Taliban dynamited two 1,700-year-old Buddha statues carved into a sandstone cliff in Afghanistan, it destroyed prized symbols of the country’s rich pre-Islamic heritage and enraged scholars ...

Two monumental statues of standing Buddhas carved into a cliff face in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, the Bamiyan Buddhas are dated to the sixth and seventh centuries CE. They were the largest known Buddha ...

Twenty years after the Taliban blew up two famous Buddha statues, Afghans commemorated the tragic loss of their historical and cultural heritage on March 9 at a ceremony in the central Bamiyan valley.

Mirza Hussain, and other prisoners like him, had labored for hours to stack mines, bombs and dynamite beneath the feet of Afghanistan’s most iconic public artwork — a 175-foot standing statue of the ...

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.

The tragic destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in March 2001, which was broadcast across the globe, led to a global recognition of the need to protect cultural heritage at risk. The empty niches of ...

Bamiyan Valley in 2010, with the hole where one of the Buddha statues was demolished (photograph by Afghanistan Matters/Wikimedia) After a reconstruction effort covertly built what appeared to be the ...