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. Now ...

It’s rare that architects have the opportunity to design a building for a UNESCO World Heritage site — much more so for one recently devastated by cultural destruction. But that day has come. In ...

This technical meeting is the fifth gathering of international experts and Afghan officials to report on the recent on-site works implemented in the Cultural Landscape and the Archaeological Remains ...

This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today. When the Taliban were driven from ...

Clad in a safari suit, sun hat, hiking boots and leather gloves, Zemaryalai Tarzi leads the way from his tent to a rectangular pit in the Bamiyan Valley of northern Afghanistan. Crenulated sandstone ...

A video recorded recently in Afghanistan shows Taliban gunmen using the remnants of the Bamiyan Buddhas for target practice. The video is raising serious concerns about a pledge by the Taliban ...

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 ...

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 ...

Said Askar, his wife and four children make their home in a smoky one-room cave carved from a sheer rock face where Afghanistan's famed Buddha statues once stood. The home is bare of furniture, has a ...

Ten years ago, the Taliban destroyed the great Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan, two giant statues that watched over the Bamiyan Valley for 1,500 years. Extensive studies of the rubble have revealed new ...