This picture shows inside the empty seat of the Buddha, which was destroyed by the Taliban, in Bamiyan on July 29, 2010. Bamiyan, some 200 kilometres (124 miles) northwest of Kabul, stands in a deep green and lush valley stretching 100 kilometres through central Afghanistan, on the former Silk Road that once linked China with Central Asia and beyond. The town was home to two nearly 2,000-year-old Buddha statues before they were destroyed by the Taliban, months before their regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
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