By Joris Fioriti (AFP)
August 12, 2012
More than 10 years on Western experts say Afghanistan's ancient Buddhist and early Islamic heritage is little safer (AFP/File, Massoud Hossaini) |
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — "It's there," says an archaeologist pointing to the ground, where fragments of a Buddha statue from the ancient Gandhara civilisation have been covered up to stop them being stolen or vandalised.
Just months before the US-led invasion in 2001, the Taliban regime shocked the world by destroying two giant, 1,500-year-old Buddhas in the rocky Bamiyan valley, branding them un-Islamic.
To read the rest of this story, visit Google.com.