According to media reports, the Taliban has blown up the statue of Abdul Ali Mazari, a political leader of the Hazara minority. Mazari was posthumously declared a "martyr for national unity" in 2016. This past February, the Taliban had declared it would respect the country's cultural assets — Afghanistan has many significant historical sites dating back thousands of years.

Two huge Buddha statues once stood in Bamiyan Valley, on one of the ancient trade routes between China and South Asia. Located some 200 kilometers (124 miles) northwest of Kabul, the valley was a center of Buddhism, which originated in India; several thousand Buddhist monks lived there in the 6th century. The Taliban destroyed the statues in March 2001. This light projection took place in 2014.

Bamiyan Valley was home not only to the famous Buddha statues but also to Shahr-e Gholghola and Shahr-e Zuhak, two forts that were strategically located on a mountain, allowing the inhabitants to spot passing caravans from afar. The city of Bamiyan flourished again in recent years, with the many sights leading to a rise in tourism.

In the late 1930s, French archaeologists found an abundance of sculptures and paintings at the Hadda Buddhist monastery complex in eastern Afghanistan, not far from the city of Kandahar. Many depictions are of real-life scenes. The Taliban destroyed most of the archaeological sites in the course of the Afghan civil war.

The citadel is one of the largest fortresses in Central Asia and the national symbol of Afghanistan. The sand-colored bulwark and its 18 towers stand tall over the city of Herat, in western Afghanistan. The construction is said to date back to the time of Alexander the Great, or c. 330 BC. It was restored around ten years ago with international aid money — and could now be a target of the Taliban.

A 1500-year-old Buddhist monastery complex sits on a hill in in Mes Aynak, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Kabul. Destruction has threatened the site for years, and not only by the Taliban. China has an eye on the copper deposits located beneath the temples and workshops. The name Mes Aynak means small copper basin.

At 65 meters (213 feet), this is the second-tallest brick minaret in the world. It is thought to have been built on the site of the ancient city of Firozkoh, the capital of the Ghurid dynasty. An inscription on the tower dates its construction to 1174-5 A.D. The place has been looted repeatedly. The Jam minaret has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list since 2002.

The mausoleum in the northern Afghan city of Balkh was built a few years after the death of the Sufi scholar Khwaja Abu Nasr Parsa, around 1460 A.D. It is also known as the Green Mosque. Starting at the end of the 16th century, six madrasas were added, and the district became a center for religious learning. The building was last restored in 2002 and serves as a cultural monument and mosque.

Known as Bagh-e Babur, the gardens were built around 1528 A.D. on the orders of the Indian Mughal ruler Babur. They were destroyed during the civil war of the 1990s but later rebuilt by the Aga Khan Foundation and Germany. The complex includes a caravanserai (a roadside inn for travelers), a palace, a historic pavilion, a mosque and Babur's tomb.

Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque, the Mosque of the King of the Two Swords, is located in downtown Kabul. It was built in the 1920s by King Amanullah Khan, who ruled from 1919-29. He attempted to modernize Afghanistan. His mosque had an unusual design, with multiple levels and facades in the Italian neo-Baroque style.

Amanullah Khan also built this palace on the occasion of Afghanistan's independence from British colonial rule in 1919. It is reminiscent of the Reichstag building in Berlin. Twenty-two German engineers helped build it and trained local specialists. During the civil war in the 1990s, the building was demolished by artillery fire. It reopened again in 2019.

The archives and exhibitions of Afghanistan's National Museum in Kabul contain some 80,000 artifacts. "We have great concerns for the safety of our staff and collections," director Mohammad Fahim Rahimi told National Geographic magazine. Back in 2001, the National Museum was looted and partially destroyed by the Taliban.

The latest film by Afghan director Sahraa Karimi premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019. It portrays three women, all living in Kabul but in different social contexts, who deal in their own way with pregnancy. The filmmaker's recent open letter warning against the Taliban was sent out to the world just before Kabul was taken. She has since fled Afghanistan and is now in Kyiv.

Under the first Taliban regime (1996–2001), women were banned from working in most fields of society, jeopardizing subsistence for families whose male members were killed or injured in conflict. "Osama" follows a young girl who disguises herself as a boy to support her family. It was the first movie to be filmed entirely in Afghanistan since 1996, as the Taliban had also banned filmmaking.

The award-winning Irish studio Cartoon Saloon created an animated film with a similar story: "The Breadwinner," based on the best-selling novel by Deborah Ellis, is also about a determined young girl who takes on the appearance of a boy to support her family. Executive produced by Angelina Jolie, the film received an Oscar nomination for best animated feature.

Based on the best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini and directed by German-Swiss filmmaker Marc Forster, "The Kite Runner" deals with universal themes such as guilt and redemption, but the story is anchored in Afghanistan's tumultuous past half century, covering the fall of the monarchy, the Soviet military intervention, the mass exodus of Afghan refugees and the Taliban regime.

This film by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, one of Iran's great directors, tells the story of an Afghan-Canadian who returns to her homeland to save her sister from committing suicide. "Kandahar" didn't get much attention when it premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. But then came the September 11 attacks, and the world wanted to find out more about the hardships faced by women in Afghanistan.

Two years later, Mohsen Makmalbaf's daughter, Samira, another leading name of the Iranian New Wave, also premiered a film centering on Afghan women at the Cannes Film Festival. "At Five in the Afternoon" tells the story of a young woman in war-torn Kabul who dreams of becoming president and tries to gain an education after the defeat of the Taliban. The film was also shot in the Afghan capital.

"In This World" portrays two young Afghan refugees on their illegal journey from a refugee camp in Pakistan to London. The drama directed by Michael Winterbottom was shot in documentary style, and had non-professional actors performing fictionalized versions of themselves. It won the Golden Bear award at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival and the BAFTA for the best non-English film.

The film "Lone Survivor" is based on the best-selling account of US Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, which depicts his participation in Operation Red Wings, targeting a group of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan's Kunar Province in 2005. Luttrell, portrayed by Mark Wahlberg in the film, was the only one in his four-man SEAL team to survive an ambush; a helicopter sent to their aid was also shot down.

The third film in Sylvester Stallone's series is set during the Soviet-Afghan War. Rambo heads to Afghanistan to rescue his former commander from the ruthless Soviet Army. Claims that the film initially had a dedication "to the brave Mujahideen fighters," later altered to "the gallant people of Afghanistan" after 9/11, have resurfaced this week — but fact checkers have found this is only a myth.

But during the Reagan administration, the US did support the Mujahideen, the anti-Soviet resistance fighters — who went on to form fundamentalist groups such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda. US Congressman Charlie Wilson (portrayed by Tom Hanks in the film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Aaron Sorkin) was a key proponent of the covert funding program, which continued as late as 1991.

The statues were located on one of the ancient major trade routes between China and South Asia. The valley of Bamiyan, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) northwest of Kabul, acted as a center for Buddhists. Several thousand Buddhist monks stayed in the valley during the 6th century AD.

Along with the monks came Buddhist art and culture, to the central Afghan mountain region. The famous dwelling caves were created into the walls made of red sandstone. The Buddha statues were also carved from this stone.

In the 7th century AD, the Chinese Buddhist monk and traveler Xuanzang returned to China after his journey to India. During his travel, he passed through the Bamiyan Valley and reported: "Dozens of temples with over a thousand monks. The standing Buddha statue is about 50 meters high and shines golden in its rich adornment."

The largest statue was 53 meters high and represented the Buddha Dipamkara, the "igniter of the lights." According to art historians, it combined various stylistic features of Buddhist art with those of the Hellenistic tradition.

Even after the Islamization of the Bamiyan Valley around 1000 AD, the statues remained. In the 20th century, they became a tourist attraction until the Soviet occupation in 1979. In the following decade-long war, the caves were used as ammunition depots. In the strategically important valley, Soviets and American-equipped mujahideen engaged in heavy fighting.

In March 2001, the Taliban, which had taken power in Afghanistan, blew up the statues, even though they had long since ceased to be religiously venerated. The radically Islamist Taliban, which opposes any objects of worship, also vandalized the National Museum in the country's capital, Kabul.

It wasn't until after their destruction that the statues became included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. There have been various proposals to rebuild the statues but none have been implemented so far.