[9] The Bamyan valley marked the most westerly point of Buddhist expansion and was a crucial hub of trade for much of the second millennium CE.

It was a place where East met West and its archaeology reveals a blend of Greek, Turkic, Persian, Chinese, and Indian influences.

On the north side, there is an approximately 1.5 kilometers long, high, almost vertical sandstone cliff that was formed by a glacier.

The Shahr-e Zuhak mound ten miles south of the valley is the site of a citadel that guarded the city, and the ruins of an acropolis could be found there as recently as the 1990s.

Mountains cover ninety percent of the province, and the cold, long winter, lasting for six months, brings temperatures of three to twenty degrees Celsius below zero.

The connection between Maidan Shar and Bamyan – 136 km long – makes it possible to reach Kabul in a 2-hour drive.

When crops are damaged by unusually harsh weather, residents herd their livestock down to Ghazni and Maidan provinces to exchange for food.

The Buddhist pilgrim Fa Xian visited Bamyan in the fifth century and recorded that the king summoned the monks of the region for vows and prayers.

Fa Xian also records landslides and avalanches in the mountains and the presence of snow during winter and summer.

This latter statement suggests climatic change which could have contributed to the historical and economic importance of the area for the years to come.

After their Khanate was destroyed by the Sassanids and Turks in 565, Bamyan became the capital of the small Kushano-Hephthalite kingdom until 870, when it was conquered by the Saffarids.

Favoured by its location on one of the main trade routes from the West to China and India, the valley was of great strategic importance.

At that time, the center of the city of Bamiyan was moved from the northwest of the valley, where the cliff with the Buddha statues is located, further to the southeast.

[19] During the Ghurids rule, Bamiyan was the capital of a large kingdom for about 60 years, namely from 1155 to 1212, which stretched north to the Oxus River (today's Amu Darya).

Bamiyan is also mentioned again in the history books during the Mughal Empire, especially in connection with Aurangzeb, who had the 53 m tall Buddha statue shot at with cannons during his looting.

They demanded tribute payments, mainly in the form of deliveries from slaves from the Hazara tribes of the surrounding mountains.

During 1998–2001, Bamyan has been the center of combat between Taliban forces and the anti-Taliban alliance; mainly Hizb-i-Wahdat – amid clashes among the warlords of the local militia.

Corridors and galleries were carved into the rock around the figures and hundreds of prayer halls and caves were created, some of which were decorated with rich wall paintings.

[23] In late ancient times, the adjoining room was mainly in the hands of tribes who were counted among the Iranian Huns and were in conflict with the Sassanid Empire.

Almost a hundred years later, in 727, the Korean monk Hyecho (Hui Chao) described Bamiyan as an independent and powerful kingdom, despite the presence of Muslim-Arab troops in the north and south of the region.

Destroying two giant Buddhas in Bamyan was one of the spectacular and worst attacks against the cultural art and history of Afghanistan on February 26, 2001.

[citation needed] The caves were also a big tourist attraction before the long series of wars in Afghanistan.

Recently, Afghan refugees escaped the persecution of the Taliban regime by hiding in caves in the Bamiyan valley.

[1] Dambura is one of the Famous traditional music equipment which is guitar-like is made from mulberry wood, which is popular and largely used by classic singers and folklore, musicians mainly played in central.

traditional Dambura festival is held each year in a bid to help improve the tourism industry of Bamyan province.

Carpets, rugs, felts, embroidery, pottery and other local women's products can be mostly found in the art market shops.

According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which helped the Afghan government set up the park, Band-e-Amir is one of the few travertine systems in the world.

[34] Bamyan Despite being one of the country's poorest and least developed regions, Bamiyan remains one of the safest areas of Afghanistan today.

Band-e-Amir National Park is located in central Afghanistan's Bamiyan province, .The WCS, along with a number of international agencies and funding partners including USAID and the United Nations Development Programme, assisted the local Afghan government in helping to establish and manage the park.

[36] The numerous remains of monasteries, painted caves, statues and fortifications have been on the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage since 2003.