I had opened an old external drive to look at saved "slides" from a 70s trip to Iran, India and Afghanistan. When I had digitalized them about 30 years later there had been a degree of deterioration. Yet, today they can be of interest since two are of world treasures that no longer exist.
I am referring to the Giant Buddhas of Bamyian which the Taliban destroyed by cannon fire. The top picture is the larger one. You can get some idea of its size from the openings of cave chambers on the sides. A man could stand upright in one of those openings.
The smaller one has wood scaffolding which again can give some suggestion of size. They were originally bejeweled which centuries of invaders had looted.
The other is a picture of Afghanistan from a small airplane with the Hindu Kush mountains and a fertile valley below the plane.
Perhaps this can give you an idea why no invader from Alexander the Great to the Colonial British and the Russians before us ever succeeded in occupying that corner of the world.
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