Dan
Cruickshank and the Lost Treasure of Kabul
Saturday
4 May 2002, BBC TWO
Architectural
historian Dan Cruickshank journeys to Afghanistan on an expedition
into the heart of its war torn cities and mountainous regions in
search of what remains of its once rich cultural heritage.
Over
the last 20 years, Afghanistan has been blown apart by successive
civil wars and the tyrannical regime of the Taliban. This was a
country with a unique cultural identity, whose ancient trade road,
the Silk Route, had brought a great fusion of influences from the
Han dynasty in the East, the Caesar dynasty in the West and from
India in the South. Now Afghanistan lies in ruins and archaeological
sites and architectural ruins have been plundered by soldiers and
profiteers.
For
this Omnibus Special, Dan Cruickshank attempts to discover what
cultural treasures remain. He travels to Bamiyan to see first hand
the colossal Buddhas that were destroyed by the Taliban in March
2001. He meets the Hazara people of Bamiyan, who speak openly about
life under the Taliban.
In
Kabul, Dan visits the town’s museum which has lost approximately
70% of its collection. All artefacts containing imagery thought
contradictory to the Taliban version of Islam were destroyed. What
little remains is due to the heroics of museum staff and members
of the Afghan "Cultural Resistance" who risked their lives
to save art work. They tell of the extraordinary lengths they were
prepared to go to, to protect their cultural heritage.
Omnibus
Special also goes in search of the Bactrian Gold. This hoard of
some 26,000 pieces of gold jewellery was found near Kunduz in 1979,
but has not been seen since 1999. The gold is thought to lie intact
in a secret location in Kabul.
Dan
Cruickshank
Dan
Cruickshank is one of the country’s leading architectural and
historic building experts. He has written and presented a number
of television programmes for the BBC, including Invasion, One Foot
in the Past and Travels with Pevsner.
He
is an active member of the Georgian Group and the Architectural
Panel of the National Trust and is a director of the Spitalfields
Historic Buildings Trust, a charity that acquires and repairs Georgian
domestic architecture in London.
Dan
is also a frequent contributor to The Architects' Journal and The
Architectural Review and is the author of Life in The Georgian City,
and The Guide To The Georgian Buildings Of Britain And Ireland.
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