Afghanistan's ancient heritage in danger

According to media reports, the Taliban has blown up the statue of Abdul Ali Mazari, a political leader of the Hazara minority. Mazari was posthumously declared a "martyr for national unity" in 2016. This past February, the Taliban had declared it would respect the country's cultural assets — Afghanistan has many significant historical sites dating back thousands of years.

Two huge Buddha statues once stood in Bamiyan Valley, on one of the ancient trade routes between China and South Asia. Located some 200 kilometers (124 miles) northwest of Kabul, the valley was a center of Buddhism, which originated in India; several thousand Buddhist monks lived there in the 6th century. The Taliban destroyed the statues in March 2001. This light projection took place in 2014.

Bamiyan Valley was home not only to the famous Buddha statues but also to Shahr-e Gholghola and Shahr-e Zuhak, two forts that were strategically located on a mountain, allowing the inhabitants to spot passing caravans from afar. The city of Bamiyan flourished again in recent years, with the many sights leading to a rise in tourism.

In the late 1930s, French archaeologists found an abundance of sculptures and paintings at the Hadda Buddhist monastery complex in eastern Afghanistan, not far from the city of Kandahar. Many depictions are of real-life scenes. The Taliban destroyed most of the archaeological sites in the course of the Afghan civil war.

The citadel is one of the largest fortresses in Central Asia and the national symbol of Afghanistan. The sand-colored bulwark and its 18 towers stand tall over the city of Herat, in western Afghanistan. The construction is said to date back to the time of Alexander the Great, or c. 330 BC. It was restored around ten years ago with international aid money — and could now be a target of the Taliban.

A 1500-year-old Buddhist monastery complex sits on a hill in in Mes Aynak, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Kabul. Destruction has threatened the site for years, and not only by the Taliban. China has an eye on the copper deposits located beneath the temples and workshops. The name Mes Aynak means small copper basin.

At 65 meters (213 feet), this is the second-tallest brick minaret in the world. It is thought to have been built on the site of the ancient city of Firozkoh, the capital of the Ghurid dynasty. An inscription on the tower dates its construction to 1174-5 A.D. The place has been looted repeatedly. The Jam minaret has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list since 2002.

The mausoleum in the northern Afghan city of Balkh was built a few years after the death of the Sufi scholar Khwaja Abu Nasr Parsa, around 1460 A.D. It is also known as the Green Mosque. Starting at the end of the 16th century, six madrasas were added, and the district became a center for religious learning. The building was last restored in 2002 and serves as a cultural monument and mosque.

Known as Bagh-e Babur, the gardens were built around 1528 A.D. on the orders of the Indian Mughal ruler Babur. They were destroyed during the civil war of the 1990s but later rebuilt by the Aga Khan Foundation and Germany. The complex includes a caravanserai (a roadside inn for travelers), a palace, a historic pavilion, a mosque and Babur's tomb.

Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque, the Mosque of the King of the Two Swords, is located in downtown Kabul. It was built in the 1920s by King Amanullah Khan, who ruled from 1919-29. He attempted to modernize Afghanistan. His mosque had an unusual design, with multiple levels and facades in the Italian neo-Baroque style.

Amanullah Khan also built this palace on the occasion of Afghanistan's independence from British colonial rule in 1919. It is reminiscent of the Reichstag building in Berlin. Twenty-two German engineers helped build it and trained local specialists. During the civil war in the 1990s, the building was demolished by artillery fire. It reopened again in 2019.

The archives and exhibitions of Afghanistan's National Museum in Kabul contain some 80,000 artifacts. "We have great concerns for the safety of our staff and collections," director Mohammad Fahim Rahimi told National Geographic magazine. Back in 2001, the National Museum was looted and partially destroyed by the Taliban.