The province has a population of about 495,557[6] and borders Samangan to the north, Baghlan, Parwan, and Maidan Wardak to the east, Ghazni and Daikundi to the south, and Ghor and Sar-e-Pol to the west.

The province has several famous historical sites, including the now-destroyed Buddhas of Bamiyan, around which are more than 3,000 caves, the Band-e-Amir National Park, Dara-e-Ajhdar, Gholghola, and Zuhak ancient towns, the Feroz Bahar, Astopa, Klegan, Gaohargin, Kaferan, and Cheldukhtaran.

Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the geographical area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west, and north.

After 2000 BC, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan; among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians.

Another religion, Zoroastrianism is believed by some to have originated in what is now Afghanistan between 1800 and 800 BC, as its founder Zoroaster is thought to have lived and died in Balkh.

By the middle of the 6th century BC, the Achaemenid Persians overthrew the Medes and incorporated Arachosia, Aria, and Bactria within its eastern boundaries.

In 330 BC, Alexander the Great seized the area but left it to the Seleucids to rule.Afghanistan's significant ancient tangible and intangible Buddhist heritage is recorded through wide-ranging archeological finds, including religious and artistic remnants.

Buddhism was by this time in "an expansionist mode, offering religious practices that spoke to the masses and an appealing style of illustrative art, backed by the subtle philosophy of the Mahayana sect".

[citation needed] In the 1980s, during the Soviet-Afghan War, the Hazara rebel leader Abdul Ali Mazari began a resistance movement against the Soviets in the region, Shura-e-Itifaq-e-Islami.

This led to a struggle in the western province of Bamyan, Yakawlang, which was regarded by both sides as being key to control northern and central Afghanistan.

The Supreme Leader of the Taliban at the time, Mullah Mohammad Omar, allegedly stopped more retribution acts in the area, but he did not forgive the rebellion.

[20][25][26] It became the area of the country most visited by tourists, and it elected Afghanistan's first female governor of a province, Habiba Sarabi, who created the Band-e-Amir National Park.

[27] A local Hazara named Haji Hekmat Hussein, a parliamentary candidate in the U.S.' new government, was secretly a Taliban intelligence officer who participated in the 2001 massacre.

[29] By 2011, the Taliban in Bamyan started gaining strength, and there was concern over their future plans as NATO began their phased withdrawal from the country.

There was an effort by police and local militias to keep the Taliban 60 miles away from Bamyan city, which the Afghanistan government believed could be the start of a turnaround for their military in the region.

The region is also known for a "shuttle system" of planting, wherein seed potatoes are grown in winter in Jalalabad, a warm area of eastern Afghanistan, and then transferred to Bamyan for spring re-planting.

[39] The province hosts the Afghan Ski Challenge, a 7 km downhill race over ungroomed and powdered snow,[42] founded by Swiss journalist and skier Christoph Zurcher.