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Re-Creating Afghanistan
Unearthing a Cultural Heritage in a Lost City
 Listen to Renée Montagne's report.
 View a photo gallery about the road to Kharwar.
View a photo gallery about the Kharwar archaeological site.
View a photo gallery about rescued artifacts.
This head, taken from an ancient statue depicting a soldier, is believed to be more than 1,000 years old. After being found with other stolen artifacts from Kharwar, it was given to the Kabul Museum.
Photo: Tom Bullock, NPR News
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The archaeological site in Kharwar is about 65 miles south of Kabul.
Graphic: Katherine Parker, NPR Online
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UNESCO Afghan team leader Jim Miller enters an illicit tunnel at the archaeological site in Kharwar.
Photo: Tom Bullock, NPR News
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Aug. 15, 2002 -- Draped above the entrance to the Kabul Museum is a canvas banner proclaiming in big blue letters: "A Nation Can Stay Alive When Its Culture and History Stay Alive."
No nation in recent years has experienced such a brutal assault on its culture, Morning Edition guest host Renée Montagne reports. Two years ago, the Taliban decreed images of living beings "un-Islamic" and ordered all such images destroyed.
The world watched helplessly while the Taliban blew up the giant ancient Buddhas in the Bamiyan Valley. Then the Taliban used bats to smash the statues and paintings in the Kabul Museum.
In the latest report in the NPR series "Re-Creating Afghanistan," Montagne visits the museum and travels to a newly discovered archaeological site south of the capital in the Logar province. The site, estimated to hold ruins more than 1,000 years old, may turn out to be the largest Buddhist city ever discovered in Afghanistan. Some artifacts stolen from the site were recently recovered and taken to the museum for safekeeping.
Jim Williams, an official with UNESCO (the United Nations cultural arm), says that through years of civil war that started when the Soviets left Afghanistan, the Kabul Museum suffered damage from rocket attacks and looting. Mujahadeen warlords pilfered the treasures inside -- statues and carvings in gold, ivory and marble and one of the world's greatest collections of ancient coins.
"By the time the Taliban arrived, there wasn't much left for them to destroy," Montagne reports.
Recently, four thieves were arrested near the Pakistani border. In their possession were antiquities, including heads, hands and feet from statues. The trail of the crime led back to a buried city near Kharwar, in the Logar province.
Montagne made the dusty southern trek from Kabul to the site along with officials from the government and UNESCO -- and lots of armed guards. The site shows signs of illicit digging -- massive dirt mounds, like anthills, three and four stories tall.
Sayed Raheen, Afghanistan's minister of information and culture, has appealed to the Logar governor and local militias for as much protection as possible. But he says the site would be best protected if a team of international excavators come and take over.
"You know our civilization is vanishing, once more, once again, if we leave it like this," Raheen says.
In Depth
 Listen to a Dec. 3, 2001, All Things Considered report on the Taliban-ordered destruction at the Kabul Museum.
Read about the Buddhas of Bamiyan.
Read about Afghanistan's cultural reawakening.
Read about Kandahar's durable architecture.
Search for more NPR stories on Afghanistan.
Other Resources
• See photos of objects from the Kabul Museum.
• Learn more about UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural arm.
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