February 2001
Searching the internet at the beginning of the year 2001 for "Kabul & museum" or for "Bamiyan" displays alarming news. This is why I'd like to put my old photographs of Afghanistan of the years 1969, 1970, and 1974 into the WWW to preserve a vivid memory of the treasures collected in the museum in Darulaman and of an Afghanistan as it used to be years ago.
Satellite view of the devastated museum in GoogleEarth.

The news international press agencies have been spreading since February 26, 2001 about the Taleban planning to destroy the Buddhas in Bamiyan as well as sculptures and paintings in the Kabul Museum and other locations in Afghanistan are nurturing the desire to present a collection of (former) treasures of Afghanistan in the world wide web.

My professor and supervisor Klaus Fischer at the Department for Oriental Art History of the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms University in Bonn succeeded many years ago in providing me a permission of the Director General Archaeology Afghanistan, Prof. Dr. Sh. Moustamindy, to take plenty of photos in the museum in Darulaman before we went out for our fieldwork in Sistan in 1969. In memory of Klaus Fischer and in gratitude to his work in and about Afghanistan, I am presenting these pictures together with other photographs of the years 1970 and 1974 on this site.

The descriptions of the photos from the National Museum Kabul I have added in the meantime. For additional information regarding the descriptions I'm always open.

And by the time all the old photographs will be scanned and uploaded into the net, I'll get down to organise them and bring them into proper order. However, at the moment I think the mere presentation of the pictures is much more important. Sorting and organising them will be a task for quieter days. I do hope you agree with me on the size of the photos. In my opinion, stamp-size photos are of no use at all, and anybody who is really interested in the pictures surely doesn't mind a few additional seconds of loading-time.

Please visit also the Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Afghanistan (AGA) (Scientific Work Group Afghanistan (AGA)) maintained by Bernt Glatzer.

For a similar topic see:
Buddhist rock-art from Northern Pakistan : http://www.thewalt.de/documentation

Many thanks for the translation go to Angie Dröber.