Afghan Treasures

vania Museum.

Most of the Kabul Museum’s collection, which included Silk Road artifacts from China, Egypt, India, Greece and Rome besides ancient Afghanistan, disappeared following the 1979 Soviet invasion and the years of civil war that followed the 1989 Soviet withdrawal.

Statues and other artifacts considered “un-Islamic,” were smashed by the Taliban after the fundamentalist Islamic militia took power in 1996.

But a total of 22,596 objects, including 2,000-year-old Bactrian gold jewelry and ornaments, ivory statues of water goddesses and Buddhist terra cotta sculptures and carvings, have been recovered in the Kabul stash.