Notes: Ghorband Valley was once a major stopping point along the great Silk Route, it lies in the Hezb-i-Wahdat faction stronghold of Bamian province.
The huge white-stone statue was built in the third or fourth centuries AD. It is thought that King Kanishka head of the now obscure Buddhist Kushan empire who came from nearby central Persia and conquered large parts of south and central Asia, might have built this great monument to Buddha.