Munich

The giant statue of Buddha at Bamiyan in Afghanistan, one of two destroyed in March last year by the Taliban, will soon be reconstructed — electronically.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich are close to completing a three-dimensional computer model of the 2,000-year-old statue, using a set of high-resolution images taken in 1970 by Austrian cartographers.

“A high-accuracy computer model, which could be used as the basis for physical reconstruction, will be available by the end of the month,” says Fabio Remondino, one of the scientists involved in the project.

But authorities warn that a full physical reconstruction is unlikely. Christian Manhart, an Asian specialist at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, says that rebuilding the statue, which stood nearly 55 metres tall, is neither realistic nor desirable.

The site should be left as it is and be protected as a memorial, similar to the concentration camp at Auschwitz or the memorial church in Berlin, Manhart says, as recommended by the 1964 International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites.

Paul Bucherer-Dietschi, director of the Afghanistan Institute and Museum near Basel in Switzerland, is coordinating a feasibility study on possible reconstruction of the statue. He will meet with 40 other experts in Kabul this month to discuss the protection and restoration of Afghanistan's cultural heritage.

→ http://www.photogrammetry.ethz.ch/research/bamiyan