Bamiyan Travel Information and Travel Guide - Afghanistan

Introducing Bamiyan

Bamiyan sits at the heart of the Hazarajat in a wide valley braided with mountain rivers and is one of the poorest yet most beautiful parts of Afghanistan. Once a major centre for Buddhist pilgrimage, modern Bamiyan is now more closely associated with the destruction visited on Afghanistan’s culture by war. The two giant statues of Buddha that once dominated the valley now lie in rubble, victims of the Taliban’s iconoclastic rage. Despite this, the Bamiyan valley still holds a powerful draw over the imagination. It was made a World Heritage site in 2003 for its cultural landscape and is a must-see for any visitor to Afghanistan.

While isolated today, it wasn’t always so. Bamiyan was once an important way station on the Silk Road. Trade and pilgrims flocked to its temples and in return Bamiyan exported its art – a synthesis of Greek, Persian and Indian art that had a major influence on Buddhist iconography as far afield as China. Centuries later, Bamiyan became the focus of Afghanistan’s nascent tourist industry, as visitors came to rediscover its past glories and gaze in awe at the monumental Buddha statues carved from its cliffs.

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