The Taliban destroyed these ancient Buddhas. Now they're welcoming tourists to the site.

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With the Taliban in charge, the future of the Bamiyan Buddha statues is unclear.

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For around $5, curious visitors can wander around and take photos of the giant holes in the, soldiers man a booth and write out admission tickets., came to see the historic site this week with friends from Kandahar, around 350 miles southwest of Bamiyan. Now that the Taliban are in control, he said, he feels free to tour the country.

“I was young when these were destroyed, about 7 years old, and since then it has been a dream to come and see what happened here,” he said.Carved into the face of a cliff, the two 6th century Buddha statues — one 180 feet tall and the other 124 feet tall — towered over the valley. The area was a holy site for Buddhists on the ancient trading route between China and Europe known as the Silk Road.

When the Taliban announced their plan to destroy the statues in 2001, they had come under heavy international pressure to keep them standing. But,Since taking over the country again a few months ago, the Taliban have sought to present a more moderate face to the world despite ain some areas.

“Bamiyan has always been a part of Afghanistan that the outside world has focused on,” said Llewelyn Morgan, the author of “The Buddhas of Bamiyan” and a professor of classics at the University of Oxford.“The Taliban know that and that’s why in their slightly inept way they are still trying to paint themselves as a

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