Thank you!Great shot. I hope you mad a large print of it.Cave near Inverloch, Australia - it collapsed circa 2021, the view is no more.
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Here's another shot of the smaller Buddha, note the persons each side at the bottom for scale.I did a big overland trip from Europe to Australia in 1975 back when you could safely travel through Afghanistan before Taliban times. In the village of Bamiyan there were two massive Buddhas carved into the cliff face dating from the 6th century when the area was Buddhist. At 180 and 120 feet tall they were the largest carvings of standing Buddhas in the world. It was possible to climb through passages within the cliff to emerge on the head of one of the statues to take in the view over the valley below. It was an amazing Indiana Jones travel experience for me.
In 2001, when the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, they decided that the 1500 year old Buddhas were "unislamic" and to the horror of the world, dynamited both statues until they were completely destroyed. The destruction was apparently a difficult job and took several weeks.
This image is a scan of an old 4x6 print.
https://www.msphoto.ca/travel.htm
It may have been the small one, it too was destroyed, but it is still large. I had to zoom in 100% and pan around to find the people. The destruction after some 500+ years is so sad (if interested, Wikipedia has a good historical article of them Buddhas of Bamiyan).Here's another shot of the smaller Buddha, note the persons each side at the bottom for scale.I did a big overland trip from Europe to Australia in 1975 back when you could safely travel through Afghanistan before Taliban times. In the village of Bamiyan there were two massive Buddhas carved into the cliff face dating from the 6th century when the area was Buddhist. At 180 and 120 feet tall they were the largest carvings of standing Buddhas in the world. It was possible to climb through passages within the cliff to emerge on the head of one of the statues to take in the view over the valley below. It was an amazing Indiana Jones travel experience for me.
In 2001, when the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, they decided that the 1500 year old Buddhas were "unislamic" and to the horror of the world, dynamited both statues until they were completely destroyed. The destruction was apparently a difficult job and took several weeks.
This image is a scan of an old 4x6 print.
https://www.msphoto.ca/travel.htm
Thanks Jhorse, totally agree. It was hard for me to comprehend the destruction of such a gift that had endured across centuries.Wonderful story, great image/memory. I remember the outrage. It is one thing when nature's forces cause a destruction, such as an arch collapse, but quite another when humans deliberately destroy a cultural icon - that is unfathomable.I did a big overland trip from Europe to Australia in 1975 back when you could safely travel through Afghanistan before Taliban times. In the village of Bamiyan there were two massive Buddhas carved into the cliff face dating from the 6th century when the area was Buddhist. At 180 and 120 feet tall they were the largest carvings of standing Buddhas in the world. It was possible to climb through passages within the cliff to emerge on the head of one of the statues to take in the view over the valley below. It was an amazing Indiana Jones travel experience for me.
In 2001, when the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, they decided that the 1500 year old Buddhas were "unislamic" and to the horror of the world, dynamited both statues until they were completely destroyed. The destruction was apparently a difficult job and took several weeks.
This image is a scan of an old 4x6 print.
https://www.msphoto.ca/travel.htm
Ha, there you go.
So do what any guy would do at a time like that ..... LIE !
I can understand why they did it, but to me it is a retrofit abomination.On a less depressing note than the Banyan Buddhas here’s another example of why sometimes you can’t go back…
In 1997 I shot this red roofed church on the island of Mykonos. I shot it on Kodachrome with an Olympus OM2 SLR. It was one of my favourite shots.
In 2011 we returned to Mykonos and I thought it would be fun to see if I could recreate the shot with my new Nikon D700. The second shot is how it now appeared. :-(
Yes, lovely image and memory. The National Trust should pay you to use this image (copyright compliant of course).Sycamore Gap, Hadrian's Wall
Timely with the two who cut it down going to be sentenced this week.
Great shot Mike. Such s shame that things like this happen. Humans do lots of bad things. Hard to conceive why someone might think that would be a good thing to do.Sycamore Gap, Hadrian's Wall
Timely with the two who cut it down going to be sentenced this week.
I can't imagine what motivated those morons. They should make a vasectomy part of their sentence and do the rest of the world a favor.
Though not much point in reconstructing until the Taliban, who destroyed the original ones is gone...
If only you had had a roll of Kodachrome to make it look just like before! lol.
