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Bamyan, Afghanistan
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For the province, seeBamyan Province.
Bamyan

A view of the ancient Bamyan Valley showing the two statue niches


Bamyan
Location in Afghanistan
Coordinates:34°49′N 67°49′E / ?34.817°N 67.817°E / 34.817; 67.817Coordinates:34°49′N 67°49′E / ?34.817°N 67.817°E / 34.817; 67.817
Country Afghanistan
ProvinceBamyan Province
Elevation 9,186 ft (2,800 m)
Population
- Total 61,863
Time zoneUTC+4:30
Bamyan (Persian: Bāmyān), also spelled Bamiyan[1] and Bamian[2], at an altitude of about 9,200 feet (2,800 m) and with a population of about 61,863, is the largest town in the region ofHazarajat, centralAfghanistan and the capital ofBamyan Province. It lies approximately 240 kilometres north-west ofKabul, the national capital. Bamyan was the site of an early Hindu Buddhist monastery from which Bamyan takes its name (Sanskrit varmayana,"coloured"). Many statues of Buddha are carved into the sides of cliffsfacing Bamyan city. In 2008, Bamyan was found to be the home of some ofthe world's oldest oil paintings.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Geography
2 History2.1 Buddhas
3 Sister cities
4 Gallery
5 Notes
6 References
Geography
Situated on the ancientSilk Road,the town was at the crossroads between the East and West when all tradebetween China and the Middle East passed through it. TheHunas made it their capital in the 5th century. Because of the cliff of the Buddhas, the ruins of the Monk's caves, Shar-i-Gholghola ('City of Sighs', the ruins of an ancient city destroyed byGenghis Khan),and its local scenery, it is one of the most visited places inAfghanistan. The Shar-i-Zohak mound ten miles south of the valley is thesite of a citadel that guarded the city, and the ruins of anacropolis could be found there as recently as the 1990s.[4]
The town is the cultural center of theHazaraethnic group of Afghanistan. Most of the population lives in downtownBamyan. The valley is cradled between the parallel mountain ranges oftheHindu Kush and the Koh-i-Baba.
Bamyan is a small town with a bazaar at its center. It has noinfrastructure of electricity, gas, or water supplies. According toSister Cities International, Bamyan has established a sister city relationship withGering, Nebraska, United States. It has an airport with agravel runway.
Mountains cover ninety percent of the province, and the cold, longwinter, lasting for six months, brings temperatures of three to twentydegrees Celsius below zero.MainlyDaizangi people live in the area. Transportation facilities are increasing, but sparse.
The main crops arewheat,barley,mushung, and baquli, grown in Spring. When crops are damaged byunusually harsh weather, residents herd their livestock down to Ghazniand Maidan Provinces to exchange for food.
In these years bamyan produce the best quality potato.
History

Bamyan in 600 AD, capital of a Kushano-Hephthalite Kingdom. (#25 on map)
History of Afghanistan

See also
Ariana ·Khorasan
Timeline
Pre-Islamic period
Bactria-Margiana (2200–1700 BC)
Kambojas (?-550 BC)
Median Empire (728–550 BC)
Achaemenids (550–330 BC)
Seleucids (330–150 BC)
Mauryans (305–180 BC)
Greco-Bactrians (256–125 BC)
Indo-Greeks (180–130 BC)
Indo-Scythians (Sakas) (155–80? BC)
Indo-Parthians (20 BC-50? AD)
Kushans (135 BC-248 AD)
Sassanids (230–565)
Indo-Sassanids (248–410)
Kidarites (320–465)
Hephthalites (410–557)
Kabul Shahi (565–879)
Islamic conquest
Rashidun Caliphate (642–641)
Umayyads (661–750)
Abbasids (750–821)
Tahirids (821–873)
Saffarids (863–900))
Samanids (875–999)
Ghaznavids (963–1187)
Seljukids (1037–1194)
Khwarezmids (1077–1231)
Ghorids (1149–1212)
Ilkhanate (1258–1353)
Kartids (1245–1381)
Timurids (1370–1506)
Mughals (1501–1738)
Safavids (1510–1709)
Hotaki dynasty (1709–1738)
Afsharids (1738–1747)
Modern history
Durrani Empire (1747–1826)
Barakzai dynasty (1826–1973)
Republic of Afghanistan (1973–1978)
Democratic Republic (1978–1992)
Islamic State (1992–1996)
Islamic Emirate (1996–2001)
Islamic Republic (2001–)
Afghan Civil War
1979–1989
1989–1992
1992–1996
1996–2001
2001–present
Book · Category · Portal
The city of Bamyan was part of theBuddhistKushan Empire in the early centuries of the Christian era. After the Kushan Empire fell to theSassanids, Bamyan became part of theKushansha, vassals to the Sassanids. TheHephthalitesconquered Bamyan in the 5th century. After their Khanate was destroyedby the Sassanids and Turks in 565, Bamyan became the capital of thesmallKushano-Hephthalite kingdom until 870, when it was conquered by theSaffarids. The area was conquered by theGhaznavids in the 11th century.
For decades, Bamyan has been the center of combat between zealous MuslimTaliban forces and the anti-Taliban alliance – mainlyHizb-i-Wahdat – amid clashes among the warlords of local militia. Bamyan is also known as the capital ofDaizangi.
Buddhas
Main article:Buddhas of Bamyan
On the cliff face of a mountain nearby, three colossal statues werecarved 4,000 feet apart. One of them was 175 feet (53 m) high, theworld's tallest standing statue ofBuddha. The ancient statue was carved during theKushanperiod in the fifth century. The statues were destroyed by the Talibanin March 2001, on the grounds that they were an affront to Islam.Limited efforts have been made to rebuild them, with negligible success.
At one time, two thousand monks meditated in caves among thesandstonecliffs. The caves were also a big tourist attraction before the longseries of wars in Afghanistan. The world's earliest oil paintings havebeen discovered in caves behind the partially destroyed colossalstatues. Scientists from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facilityhave confirmed that the oil paintings, probably of eitherwalnut orpoppy seed oil, are present in 12 of the 50 caves dating from the 5th to 9th century.[5]
The caves at the base of these thousands of years old statues hadbeen used by Taliban for storing weapons. After the Taliban were drivenfrom the region by American troops, civilians made their homes in thecaves. Recently, Afghan refugees escaping the persecution of the Talibanregime by hiding in caves in the Bamiyan valley, accidentally found afantastic collection of Buddhist statues and jars having more than tenthousand fragments of ancient Buddhist manuscripts, a large part ofwhich is now in the famous Schoyen collection. This has created asensation among the scholars and the find has been compared with thediscovery of the Christian Dead Sea Scrolls.
Since about 2002, aProvincial Reconstruction Team has been based in Bamyan, first manned by U.S. forces, and, since about 2003, by personnel from theNew Zealand Defence Force.
Sister cities
Gering, Nebraska[6]
Porirua, New Zealand[7]
Gallery

Bearded men with cap, probably Scythian, Bamyan, 3-4thCentury

Welcome sign.

Destroyed Statue, July 17, 2005

Bamyan Valley View
Notes
Wikisource has the text of the1911 Encyclopædia Britannica articleBamian.
^ e.g.Unesco,BBC
^Library of Congress country study
^nationalgeographic.com: accessed June 6, 2008
^ Ring, Trudy;Salkin, Robert M.;Schellinger, Paul E; La Boda, Sharon (1995) International Dictionary of Historic Places: Asia and Oceania, P.79. Taylor & Francis,ISBN 1884964044
^www.esrf.eu report on findings of Marine Cotte, J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2008, 23, DOI: 10.1039/b801358f
^Sister Cities International
^Sister Cities International
References
Dupree, Nancy Hatch (1977) [1st Edition: 1970].An Historical Guide to Afghanistan (2nd Edition, Revised and Enlarged ed.). Afghan Tourist Organization.http://www.zharov.com/dupree/index.html.
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