Bamiyan is a long, high basin in the central highlands of Afghanistan, enclosed by the westernmost ridges of the Hindu Kush to the north and the Koh-e Baba range to the south. The valley floor lies at about 2,500 to 3,000 metres, winters are severe, and farming depends on irrigation: wheat, potatoes and alfalfa, orchards of apricots and apples, and lines of poplar and willow.
Bamiyan grew up not on farming but on travel. It stood on the old routes linking Bactria with the Kabul basin and India, a natural halt for caravans before the hardest mountain passes. From about the 1st to the 13th centuries it was a major Buddhist centre, and numerous caves (monasteries, chapels and sanctuaries, some with wall paintings) were cut into the great cliff on the valley’s north side.
Two colossal standing Buddhas, 55 and 38 metres tall, filled niches in that cliff until their destruction in 2001. Together with its caves, fortresses and other remains, the valley has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2003.