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Where the world's largest Buddha statue once stood, there has only been one hole since it was blown up by the Taliban - or a projection of the monument, as here in March 2021
Photo:
WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP
Taliban fighters allegedly looted and sold art treasures from a museum in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
This is reported by the Evangelical Press Service, citing Radio Azadi.
Accordingly, the Afghan archaeologist Zamaryali Tarzi reported on the robbery.
He leads the excavations of a French team in Bamiyan.
According to local Japanese archaeologists, Buddha heads and other historical finds were said to have been stolen from the restorers' storerooms.
The Japanese news agency Kyodo reported.
The Bamiyan Valley in the Afghan highlands is famous for its two gigantic Buddha statues carved into the red sandstone rock in the sixth century.
In March 2001, the Taliban blew up the largest Buddha statues ever found.
The religious representations had already been deliberately damaged in earlier times, but now there was little more of them left than a pile of stone rubble.
Since then, scientists and restorers have secured the fragments of the centuries-old monuments.
The valley has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003.
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