In 2003, the Afghan President Hamid Karazai appeared on TV to show the Afghan people a cache discovered in a secret vault that was closed since 1989 to hide national treasures worth of $90 m.
The valuable heritage items that were kept safe by Kabul museum curators and bank staff was salvaged from decades of war and turmoil since the Soviet war and through the Taliban’s rule until the fall of the movement in 2001.
As with other treasures hidden in secret government storage rooms and monuments buried under Afghanistan’s soil, collective efforts have been ongoing to restore and repair Afghan cultural assets and artefacts to display them to the world throughout the last two decades.
However, Taliban’s takeover of the country following the US withdrawal raised concerns over the safety of the archeological artefacts as people recalled the destruction of the Buddahs of Bamiyan statues (dating back to the 6th century) at Taliban’s hands in 2001. Last August, National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul has pleaded for help to safeguard the objects that are at risk of being looted and smuggled. In response, a Taliban spokesman denied that the movement would destroy Buddhist monuments in Afghanistan. Also, Taliban officials promised to safeguard the National Museum and protect its valuable collection of cultural artifacts, Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, the museum director, told Washington Post late August. After meeting with Taliban officials, Rahimi said, they agreed to send a number of their men to guard the museum.
THE STORY OF THE MUSEUM
The museum that is located southwest of Kabul bear witnesses to a rich and diverse history that extend over 50 thousands years, where the country was a meeting point for old world populations since pre-historic ages until the Islamic era.
It withstood decades of conflicts, chaos and violence which was inflicted upon Afghanistan since the Soviet occupation, and through the civil war until Taliban’s governance in 1990s and US invasion in 2001.
According to the official website of the museum, the original collection of artefacts displayed in the museum was discovered by the first excavation of a French archaeological delegation. More archaeological findings ensued throughout the years that the museum’s collection stands as testimonies to prehistoric, classical, Buddhist. Hindu and Islamic ages.
The exceptional value of its collection and its location nearby the royal Darul Aman palace has made the museum subject to successive threats of looting and destruction by different forces fighting for power over Kabul throughout the years.
Artefacts such as golden jewels, ancient coins and weapons of the first century AD were hidden during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Following Soviet defeat, during the jihadist guerilla war, a rocket hit the museum building and many pottery and bronze artefacts were buried under the rubble. By the end of the 1990s, only a third of the collection were left while the rest was looted or destroyed.
However, the museum curators were able to hide some artefacts and transport them in secrecy to a safe place. In 1989, museum curators and workers could transfer caches of priceless historical objects to secret treasury vaults of the Ministry of Information and the Central Bank at the presidential palace.
In 2004, the museum re-opened with artefacts that were previously hidden, along with smashed fragments that curators were able to put away from Taliban’s sight. A small team of experts from Afghanistan and other countries embarked restoration process piecing together the broken parts of damaged artefacts in order to put them on display.
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The restoration of some museum artefacts was held by conservator Fabio Colombo backed by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Funded by the US Department of State, they aimed to piece together some 2,500 Buddha statues and ceramics.
“We have a very glorious Islamic history that we are proud of, but we also have a rich pre-Islamic history that we must preserve,” Rahimi told BBC last year adding that “It is important our youth learn about this history, this diversity and their heritage.”
LIVING ARCHEOLOGICAL MONUMENTS
As a witness to the region’s rich history, other prominent archeological sites in Afghanistan include Kabul’s Pul-e Khishti Mosque (built in the 18th century and which is the city’s largest mosque) and Garden of Babur (which dates back to the first Mughal emperor Babur around 1528 AD), in addition to Jam minaret (which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the western Ghor province), Ghazni Minarets (two decorated towers dating back to the 12th century, in the central city of Ghazni), the Blue Mosque or Hazrat Ali Mazar (in Mazar-i-Sharif), the ancient Greek city of Ai-Khanoum (which is located in Takhar province and which is believed to be founded by Alexander the Great (around 327 BC).
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In July 2021, UNESCO accepted to include the western Afghanistan city of Herat on its list of World Cultural Heritage Sites. Herat is home to many significant historical monuments and is thought to have been established around 500 BC. One of the most prominent sites of the famous city is Qala Iktyaruddinor the Citadel of Herat (which dates back to Alexander the Great who arrived in the region in 330 BC). The Musalla Complex is another significant architecture asset which encompasses 15th-century buildings in need of restoration: a mosque, the mausoleum of Gawharshad, five minarets and the remains of the madrasa of Hussein Baiqara. Some other surviving architectural heritage sites mentioned by the UNESCO website are the Great Mosque of Herat (Jami Mosque of Herat) and mausoleum complex of Khwaja Abdulla Ansari in Gozargah, which dates from the Timuridperiod.
Will the monuments that testify to the millennia-old history of the central Asian nation survive the ongoing phase of disruption? Will the renovation efforts that began two decades ago resume to revive the ruins of Afghanistan’s old civilizations and place them back as a precious living world cultural heritage?
