🏛️ Cultural Landscape of the Bamiyan Valley

The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two monumental Buddhist reliefs in the Bamiyan Valley of what is now Afghanistan, carved possibly around the 6th-century. Located 130 kilometres (81 mi) to the northwest of Kabul, at an elevation of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft), carbon dating of the structural components of the Buddhas has determined the smaller 38 m (125 ft) "Eastern Buddha" was built around 570 CE, and the larger 55 m (180 ft) "Western Buddha" was built around 618, which would date both to the time when the Hephthalites ruled the region.