The Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley

　　The Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2003. Afghanistan is an ancient civilization in Central Asia and an important stop along the ancient Silk Road. The Bamiyan Caves are located in a small river valley at an altitude of 2,590 meters in the Hindu Kush mountain range, north of the city of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan today. To the north are the foothills of the Dawa Mountains, a branch of the Hindu Kush, and to the south are the Baba Mountains. The Bamiyan River flows between the two ranges, and the Bamiyan Caves are carved into the cliffs on the southern side of the Dawa Mountains.

　　The Bamiyan Caves hold two world records: they comprise the largest surviving complex of Buddhist cave temples, and the Bamiyan Buddhas are the tallest ancient Buddha statues in the world. The Bamiyan Caves stretch over 1,300 meters in length and contain more than 700 caves of various sizes, making it much larger than both the Kizil Caves in Baicheng, Xinjiang, and the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Gansu, in China. The most eye-catching features of the Bamiyan Cave complex are two massive standing Buddha statues, commonly known as the "Eastern Great Buddha" and the "Western Great Buddha," which are carved into the cliffs on the eastern and western sections respectively. These two colossal figures are 400 meters apart and are highly visible from afar.