Efforts to restore Afghanistan's legendary Bamiyan Buddhas are moving forward at a snail's pace, a far cry from the few days it took the Taliban to destroy the 1,500-year-old statues.

Protests against the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas came from around the world. The larger statue is seen here before its destruction.
(Associated Press)

In 2001, the world watched in horror as the country's then ruling Taliban regime set about destroying the massive, ancient statues carved into a mountainside in the Bamiyan Valley. Soldiers blasted rockets at and set off explosives on the sandstone artifacts.

Bamiyan provincial Governor Habiba Sorabi said she's pushing hard for restoration, but acknowledged that it would be a monumental expense.

While there has been no decision on funding for such a massive reassembly project, Sorabi told CBC News she wants to restore "at least one of them."

"It takes a lot of money and time to have both of them, of course," said Sorabi, Afghanistan's sole female governor.

"One of them, if we have it, would be very good for [tourism]."

Teams of foreign and Afghan engineers, tunnelling experts and restorers have spent the last few years cataloguing the rubble and shoring up the damaged cliffside.

Stabilization of the mountain's rockface — which was also severely weakened by the Taliban explosions — and the snaking paths behind it appears to be going well, according to the CBC's Chris Brown.

However, restoration teams face enormous difficulty on the ground, where fragments of the former statues lie.

Experts estimate that approximately 60 per cent of the two statues' mass remains, with the rest reduced to dust during the destruction.

One plan put forward has suggested that the destroyed statues and frescoes be reassembled in the existing cavities using mortar. However, the project could cost an estimated $50 million — an amount the impoverished area cannot afford.

Destroyed in days

Located in Bamiyan province, west of Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul, the two statues were blown up by the Taliban over the course of one weekend in March 2001.

The regime had ordered the demolition of the two statues and all other similar religious artifacts across Afghanistan, saying the goal was to eradicate idolatry from the country.

Teams of foreign and Afghan restorers have spent years cataloguing the pieces of rubble, marking them for reconstruction.
(CBC)

India launched a protest against the destruction of the Buddhas. Other countries with large Buddhist populations — including Japan, South Korea, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Thailand Laos and Myanmar — also objected, to no avail.

In 2002, an international mission led by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and experts from Japan and Italy began securing and cataloguing what remained of the famed archeological site. A year later, UNESCO added the location to its list of World Heritage sites.

The team carbon dated the fragments, pinpointing the statues' origins to the early and mid-sixth century — about AD 507 for the 38-metre figure and about 551 for the 53-metre figure.