In addition to the anxiety about the future of Afghan society under the Taliban regime, there is obvious anxiety about what will happen to archeological sites and monuments with the rise of extremist Islamist elements. Afghanistan’s cultural heritage is vast and partly unknown.
The civilizations followed one another from the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks of Alexander the Great, the Sassanid Abbasids, the Gaznavites, the Gourids, the Mongols, the Timurids to the British Empire and the entry of the USSR into the Kingdom.
Images of the Taliban’s 1,500-year-old Buddhist monuments catastrophe in March 2001 are horrifying at the mere thought that they could be repeated. The Taliban are only interested in preserving historical and cultural representations that are in line with their Islamic theology.
The Afghan heritage is in danger of being attacked and destroyed, as well as the collapse of the governance structures created over the last twenty years.
The Agony for the fate of specific Monuments
- The Bamiyan Valley
The history of the Bactrians between the 1st and 13th centuries is presented in the archeological surroundings of the Bamiyan Valley. For this reason, it was declared by UNESCO (2003) as a World Heritage Site.
The network of monasteries, chapels and cells and Buddha statues made by Buddhist monks from the 3rd to the 5th century showing the migratory flow of Buddhism from India to China.
• Ancient Bactrian
The ancient Bactrian destroyed by the Genghis Khan. There is Alexander the Great married Roxane. It is the birthplace of the great Sufi poet Rumi (1207-1273). Like the city of Zarathustra, the creator of Zoroastrianism, a monotheistic religion, with the oldest altar of fire in the Zoroastrian world, with fire symbolizing the promise of the final victory of light over darkness. An area with fragments of columns and decorative elements, it is one of the most important architectural ensembles in Afghanistan.
- The city of Ai Khanoum
The Greek city of Ai Khanoum includes archeological traces of a theater, arsenal, temples, and administrative buildings, and in which manuscripts of the Neoplatonic school of the 3rd century BC were found. Its location is in the Tahar region (Northern Afghanistan) at the confluence of the Amu Darya and Kuksa rivers.
- The historic Herat
The historic city of Herat (15th – 16th century), we find the blue colors of the glass of Samarkand, the city of Timur, in Uzbekistan in northern Afghanistan. To the east is the Minaret of Jam (10th century), 65 meters high with a dangerous slope.
• The copper mines
Afghanistan has the second largest copper mine on the planet, which was operated by Buddhist monks in the first centuries AD. Perched at 2,300 meters above sea level, south of Kabul, the copper mine was bought by China for $ 8 billion (2007).
There are the imposing relics of a monastery that cover the entire site, guarding gilded Buddha statues in meditation.
The international community is anxious and the whole planet with it for the future of the great archeological and cultural monuments of Afghanistan.
