Afghani men gaze on the 175-foot Bamian Buddha, carved 1,500 to 1,700 years ago. For centuries Bamian was a crossroads of Indian, Greek, and Chinese cultures.
This statue and two other giant carved buddhas near it were demolished by the Taliban in 2001 in a campaign to eradicate reminders of the country's pre-Islamic heritage.
(Photograph from "Back to Afghanistan," October 1946, National Geographic magazine)
