Lost Treasures of Afghanistan

The territory of the present day Afghanistan, which once belonged to the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, was one of the main crossroads of the Silk Road that linked the trade between the Roman Empire and the distant China. This was a place where the different cultures and religions from Europe and Asia met and merged, specially the Greek culture and the Buddhism. The troops of Alexander the Great had arrived in this region in the 4^th Century B.C, at the same time, Buddhism, which was expanding all around Central Asia, reached as far as the Greco- Bactrian Kingdom. The fact that this two great cultures merged, gave rise to a new Buddhist art with a clearly Greek influence.

Afghanistan is home of an immense historical and artistic heritage. Unfortunately, many of these treasures have been destroyed by Muslim radicals, like the Buddha statues that were carved on a mountain in Bamiyan and which were destroyed by the Taliban regime in March 2001.