Surveys of cultural heritage in Afghanistan in 2000 (and a bit in 2002) and reports on the emergency conservation/restoration works on monuments carried out under my supervision
From March to October 2000 I worked in Afghanistan for the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage (SPACH). I traveled often to survey cultural heritage sites, suggest or oversee emergency restoration/conservation works. Below is first a list of reports written for SPACH, and a few for the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture, as well as a few articles written in French for the Nouvelles d’Afghanistan, and published (I believe) without major edits in 2000/2001. This is followed by a list of sites surveyed.
Unfortunately, I have very few of the photographs I took in my possession. I handed them all over, with the negatives, to SPACH before leaving and only have a few print copies myself. A list of all the sites I photographed can be found here. I believe the negatives and prints are stored at the Nancy Dupree Afghanistan Center at Kabul University today.
- Initial report after establishing an office for SPACH in Kabul (May 2000).
- Article written for Farhang Magazine, a new, SPACH-supported project of the Ministry of Information and Culture, about a visit to cultural heritage sites in Balkh province. Submitted May 2000, published later in 2000.
- Report on the struggling tile workshop in Mazar-e Sharif, famous for its red tiles.
- Report on sites in Baghlan province and the retrieval of the Rabatak inscription from Pul-e Khumri (I also wrote this Wikipedia lemma about it).
- Survey of monuments in Ghazni late April 2000, and report on the reburial of Tepe Sardar, an extensive Buddhist site near Ghazni, August 2000.
- Survey of monuments in the Hazarajat, during several visits in 2000.
- Survey of the Bamiyan Buddhas in September 2000. Note: I was most likely the last person to survey the site before it was destroyed in March 2001. I had no permission to visit the site because a military base had been established at its foot, so I had to conduct my survey surreptitiously. Unfortunately my camera was not working well, as I found out later when developing the photos: streaks of light had ruined many negatives.
- Survey of monuments in Herat province and the old city.
- Report on the emergency works undertaken by SPACH to save the minarets of Jam and Herat. There is also a version of this report prepared for the Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture.
- Final report for SPACH, focusing on tasks other than only surveying and implementing.
After leaving Kabul and Islamabad, I lived for a few months in St Petersburg, where I wrote the following articles for the French newsletter ‘Nouvelles d’Afghanistan’. This earned me a seat at two conferences convened by UNESCO in February and March 2001; the first to discuss cultural heritage in Afghanistan, and the second convened in a hurry to discuss the crisis when the Taliban announced they were destroying the Buddhas of Bamiyan.
When I returned to Afghanistan in the summer of 2001, I was working for the United Nations as Civil Affairs Officer. I then joined the Board of SPACH, and wrote the following two quite summary reports:
- Visit to a few monuments in Baghlan and Balkh provinces, early 2002
- Visit to some monuments in Kandahar, Helmand and Zabul, mid 2002
| Month | Site, province | Photos | Discussed in… | |
| March | Guldara Stupa, Kabul | No | Report 3, April | |
| March | Tepe Maranjan, Kabul | No | Report 3, April | |
| April | Takht-e Pol Mosque, Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Shahr-e Barbar near Daulatabad, Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Kafir Qala (Qala-ye Musa Doz), Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Tepe Bagh-e Shur, Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Minaret of Zadyan, Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Shrine of Mir-i Ruzadar, Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Shrine of Khwaja Parsa, Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Masjed-e No Gumbad, Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Rabatak, Baghlan | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Surkh Kotal, Baghlan | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Bus-i Shan, Baghlan | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Takht-i Rustam, Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Bala Hissar of Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Shrine of Pir Ali Baba, Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Shrine of Khwaja Akasha, Balkh | Yes | Balkh report | |
| April | Tepe Sardar, Ghazni | Yes | Ghazni report | |
| April | Palace of Sultan Massud III, Balkh | Yes | Ghazni report | |
| May | Shrine of Pacha Sahib, Kabul | Yes | ||
| May | Victory Arch of Paghman, Kabul | Yes | ||
| June | Haji Sahib shrine and mosque, Kabul | Yes | ||
| July | Masjed-e No Gumbad, Balkh | No | ||
| July | Pul-e Imam Bokhri, Balkh | No | ||
| July | Cham Qala, Baghlan | No | ||
| July | Kayhan, Baghlan | Yes | ||
| July | Kafir-Qala Bayani, Saighan, Bamyan | No | Hazarajat Report | |
| July | Mausoleum of Tuman Agha, Kohsan, Herat | Yes | Herat Monuments | |
| July | Masjed-e Jami, Ghoriyan, Herat | Yes | Herat Monuments | |
| July, Aug, Oct | Old Town of Herat, countless sites (mosques, shrines, baths, cisterns, serais, private houses, streets) | Yes | Herat Monuments | |
| July | Ansari’s tomb, Gazergah, Herat | Yes | Herat Monuments | |
| July | Minarets of Herat | Yes | Herat & Jam Report | |
| July | Mausoleum of Queen Gawhar Shad, Herat | Yes | Herat & Jam Report | |
| Aug, Oct | Qala-ye Ekhtiyaruddin (Citadel of Herat) | Yes | Herat & Jam Report | |
| Aug, Sep | Minaret of Jam, Ghor | Yes | Herat & Jam Report | |
| Aug, Sep | Ghorid monument of Chisht-e Sharif, Herat | Yes | Herat Monuments | |
| Aug | Caravanserail near Chisht-e Sharif, Herat | No | Herat Monuments | |
| Aug | Shrine of Khwaja Laikhar, Ghazni | Yes | ||
| Aug | Mausoleum of Abdurrazzaq, Ghazni | No | project proposal | |
| Aug | Mausoleum of Mohammed Sharif Khan, Ghazni | Yes | ||
| Aug | Minaret of Bahram Shah, Ghazni | Yes | ||
| Aug | Minaret of Massud III, Ghazni | Yes | ||
| Aug | Kakrak, Bamyan | Yes | Bamyan Report | |
| Aug | Chehel Burj, Yakawlang, Bamyan | Yes | Hazarajat Report | |
| Month | Site, province | Photos | Discussed in… | |
| Sep | Foladi, Bamyan | Yes | Bamyan Report | |
| Sep | Bamyan Buddhas and surrounding caves, Bamyan | Yes | Bamyan Report | |
| Sep | Fil Khana, Nangrahar | Yes | ||
| Sep | Hadda, Nangrahar | Yes | ||
| Sep | Shrine of Ali, Band-e Amir, Bamyan | Yes | Hazarajat Report | |
| Sep | Qala-ye Gawargin, Yakawlang, Bamyan | Yes | Hazarajat Report | |
| Sep | Qala-ye Ahangaran, Ghor | No | Hazarajat Report | |
| Sep | Village of Pir Pahlevan, Herat | Yes | Herat Monuments | |
| Oct | Minaret M4, Herat | Yes | Herat progress report | |
| Oct | Masjed-e Jami, Ziyaratgah, Herat | Yes | Herat Monuments | |
| Oct | Shrine of Mullah-e Kalon, Ziyaratgah, Herat | Yes | Herat Monuments | |
| Oct | Madrassah-e Hauz, Ziyaratgah, Herat | Yes | Herat Monuments | |
| Oct | Chehelsutun mosque, Ziyaratgah, Herat | Yes | Herat Monuments | |
| Oct | Bridge of Pul-i Malan, Herat | Yes | Herat Monuments | |