Golden Buddha, Hidden Copper

Twelve years after the Taliban blew up the world-famous Bamiyan Buddhas, a Chinese mining firm -- developing one of the world's largest copper deposits -- threatens to destroy another of Afghanistan's archeological treasures.

BY LOIS PARSHLEY | SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

A Buddha statue sits above a road to Mes Anayk on Nov. 23, 2010. The Chinese government-backed mining company gave archaeologists three years to finish the excavations.

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

 

Lois Parshley is an assistant editor at Foreign Policy.