"A shrine and shopping center for the twenty centuries: The Great Buddha at Bamian, northwest of Kabul, is a colossal monolith higher than Niagara-falls, and was a Central Asia rendezvous for pilgrims and traders in the first century. Now motor cars are frequently parked around the bazaar at the feet of the towering statue."
—From "Afghanistan Makes Haste Slowly," December 1933, National Geographic magazine