The niches at Bamiyan

Two Buddhas were cut into the sandstone cliff of the Bamiyan valley at 2,500 metres, the eastern one 38 metres tall and carbon dated to about 544 to 595 CE, the western one 55 metres and about 591 to 644, made under Hephthalite rule. They were reliefs, not free statues: the shapes came out of the cliff, the detail was modelled in mud and straw over that, then stuccoed and painted, the big one carmine red, and their upper faces were large wooden masks. In March 2001 the Taliban destroyed both with artillery, anti-tank mines and explosives, over several weeks, against protest from every one of the 54 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The empty niches are still there and are now the monument. So are the caves around them, painted between the fifth and ninth centuries, which include what may be the oldest oil paintings anywhere, centuries before Europe. UNESCO listed the valley in 2003.