Palmyra's predecessors: This weeks marks the 15th anniversary of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas

While so-called Islamic State (IS) has distinguished itself among Islamist militant outfits with the ferocity of its attacks on the ancient cultural heritage of Syria and Iraq, it is worth recalling that IS is merely following in the footsteps of  fellow-travellers such as the Taliban of Afghanistan.

And in this regard tomorrow (March 2, 2016) marks a particularly inauspicious anniversary: it will be precisely 15 years since Taliban fighters began the process of destroying two massive statues of Buddha that had been carved into a hillside in Bamiyan Valley in Central Afghanistan more 1,500 years ago. Recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 2003, the archaeological remains and cultural landscape of Bamiyan Valley contain many ancient Buddhist monasteries and sanctuaries, as well the two Buddhas, which stood 55m and 38m high respectively.

Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan (credit: Mr Afghanistan*)

Following the issuance of an edict in late February 2001 by Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Omar to destroy all idolatrous statues throughout the country, fighters embarked on a two-week campaign to demolish the Buddha statues, employing rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft cannon and tank shells in the process.

While the destruction was widely condemned at the time, who would have imagined that the world would be in exactly the same situation a decade and a half later, standing by powerlessly as narrow-minded militants in locales as diverse as Timbuktu in Mali and Palmyra in Syria engaged in similarly wanton acts of destruction of the world's cultural and religious heritage.

* https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11024747