Mes Aynak
Encyclopedia
Mes Aynak is located 30 km southeast of Kabul
, in a barren region of Logar Province; that is still considered a major transit route for insurgents coming from Pakistan. The mine could be a major boost for the Afghan economy. The vast site covers roughly 400,000 square meters and holds some 6 million tons of copper (5.52 million metric tons), worth tens of billions of dollars at today's prices. Developing the mine and related transport infrastructure will generate much needed jobs and economic activity for the people of Afghanistan. In what is now the world’s largest archaeological dig, around 1,000 laborers are trying to excavate artifacts from the country’s second most important Buddhist site, after Bamiyan. Archaeologists believe that Mes Aynak is a major historical heritage site. In addition to the Buddhist monasteries and other structures from the Buddhist era that have already been identified - and that experts believe are even more valuable than the Bamiyan Buddhas - this location also holds the remains of prior civilizations likely going back as far as the 3rd century BC. Historians are particularly excited by the prospect of learning more about the early science of metallurgy and mining by exploring this site. It is known to contain coins, glass, and the tools for making these, going back thousands of years. Archaeologists have already unearthed manuscripts that may provide evidence regarding the presence of Alexander the Great's troops. It appears that Buddhists who began settling the area almost two millennia ago were drawn by the availability of copper.
In the first-century B.C., the Yuezhi people were forcibly driven westward from East Central Asia to Ferghana and Bactria in present-day northern Afghanistan. Prior to around 126 B.C., Bactria had been governed by the Indo-Greeks, vestiges of the Alexandrine empire, who promulgated their rule and the Hellinistic culture throughout the region. Once the Yuezhi took Bactria from the Indo-Greeks, they established the Kushan Empire which played a prominent role in the early periods of the Silk Road. It was through the Kushans that the woolen textiles, gold, and silver of Rome flowed east; the cotton, spices, and semi-precious stones of India migrated north; the silk of China travelled west; and the rubies and lapis lazuli of Bactria and the Tarim Basin moved outwards. The Kushan Empire also played a vital role in the dissemination of Buddhism from India to Central Asia where it eventually found its way to China and then Japan. The Gandharan school of Buddhist art, propagated by the Kushan Empire, shows express evidence of the influences of anthropomorphic Greco-Roman forms and stylized Indian naturalism. In this way, the Kushan Empire
not only directly facilitated the transmission of Buddhism to Central and East Asia, but also left an ineffaceable mark on the ensuing Buddhist artwork of Asia. While Silk Road trade in the region diminished slightly around the 3rd and 4th centuries when Kushan rule was broken up by the Sassanid Empire
, religious eclecticism continued in much of the region. It was during this time period that many of the artifacts that are being unearthed at the Mes Aynak site were produced. In some places around the monastery, the ground is littered with slag, the blackened waste from the refining and smelting of copper ore, leading archaeologists to believe that the monks once exploited the lucrative copper deposits until deforestation halted their supply of timber fuel. French archaeologist documenting the site, stresses that while a copper mine might be profitable for the next 20 to 30 years, the wealth of cultural history that would be unearthed and preserved from Mes Aynak is for everybody and for the future of Afghanistan. Nevertheless, while an enduring manifestation of Afghanistan’s rich cultural past would serve well to remind the world of the country’s reputable history, during this time of political and economic instability, it is hard to justify.
Mes Aynak could provide new data on both the origin and demise of the religion here. Researchers now believe that as late as the 7th century A.D., when Islam arrived in the area, Buddhism was still making inroads as far west as Iran and as far north as Turkmenistan. "It's quite tantalizing to consider how Buddhism coexisted with the new religion,". There are also Hindu deities from that late period at Tepe Sardar, a large monastery located in the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni. Further evidence from Mes Aynak could help provide a new picture of religious blending at an important historical juncture.
. The spectacular Buddhist ruins that includes a monastery and stupas were discovered since the 1960s. The monastery site is so massive that it's easily a 10-year campaign of archaeology, three years may be just enough time only to document what's there. As the MGC wouldn't want to be blamed for razing history at Mes Aynak, an informal understanding between MGC and the Afghan government was reached that initially gave archaeologists three years for a salvage excavation. During the early 2000s, widespread looting occurred at the Buddhist sites after the Kabul government found it difficult to impose control. Archaeologists are now uncovering dozens of statues with missing heads that were broken off to sell.
The rescue excavations which began in 2009 at Gol Hamid, which lies in a mountain pass adjacent to a Chinese camp. Work was undertaken by the National Institute of Archaeology and the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan. Part of the monastic compound was excavated, leading to the discovery of a vaulted chapel, monks’ cells and storerooms. Polychrome terracotta statues were also found, including a sleeping Buddha. A monastery complex has also been dug out, revealing hallways and rooms decorated with frescoes and filled with clay and stone statues of standing and reclining Buddhas, some as high as 10ft (3m); more than 150 statues have been found so far though many remain in place. Large ones are too heavy to be moved, and the team lacks the chemicals needed to keep small ones from disintegrating when extracted. An area that was once a courtyard is dotted with stupas standing four or five feet high. In April 2011 the number of archaeologists would rise from 30 to 65. The number of labourers would be increased tenfold, from 90 to 900. The site is guarded by a force of 1,600 soldiers.
Among the finds are a 25ft-long reclining Buddha and wall paintings. Archaeologists also discovered a pair of large feet, which are all that remains of a 10 ft statue. An ancient wooden Buddha was also discovered, which very rarely survived. Although comparatively little has been excavated, the archaeologists are supposed to complete their work within 14 months. Mining is due to start in 2014. The plan is to document the site thoroughly and attempt to remove as many of the smaller stupas and statues as possible for conservation in the National Museum or possibly a future local museum. Because the buildings are mudbrick and schist, a wholesale relocation isn't possible.
Most important portable finds have been transferred to the National Museum in Kabul, the excavation already found at this site, should be enough to fill the Afghan national museum. On 15 March 2011, finds went on display in Kabul. “Along the Silk Road: Recent Excavations from Mes Aynak”, featuring 70 of the most important discoveries. The government has plans to build a new museum near Mes Aynak, on a site in Logar province. It will be five miles from the mine. There are hopes of moving some of the stupa bases and reconstructing them in the new museum. The importance of Mes Aynak has been acknowledged by many archaeologists specialising in Afghanistan.
training camp
in Afghanistan
. It was opened in 1999 after US Cruise Missile
s destroyed the camp at Khowst in August 1998; Mes Aynak itself was partially abandoned after the Taliban granted al Qaeda permission to open the al Farouq
camp in Kandahar
. Thus, for a brief time in 1999, Mes Aynak was the only Al-Qaeda camp operating in Afghanistan. It offered a full range of instruction, including an advanced commando course taught by senior al-Qaeda member Sayf al Adl.
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
, in a barren region of Logar Province; that is still considered a major transit route for insurgents coming from Pakistan. The mine could be a major boost for the Afghan economy. The vast site covers roughly 400,000 square meters and holds some 6 million tons of copper (5.52 million metric tons), worth tens of billions of dollars at today's prices. Developing the mine and related transport infrastructure will generate much needed jobs and economic activity for the people of Afghanistan. In what is now the world’s largest archaeological dig, around 1,000 laborers are trying to excavate artifacts from the country’s second most important Buddhist site, after Bamiyan. Archaeologists believe that Mes Aynak is a major historical heritage site. In addition to the Buddhist monasteries and other structures from the Buddhist era that have already been identified - and that experts believe are even more valuable than the Bamiyan Buddhas - this location also holds the remains of prior civilizations likely going back as far as the 3rd century BC. Historians are particularly excited by the prospect of learning more about the early science of metallurgy and mining by exploring this site. It is known to contain coins, glass, and the tools for making these, going back thousands of years. Archaeologists have already unearthed manuscripts that may provide evidence regarding the presence of Alexander the Great's troops. It appears that Buddhists who began settling the area almost two millennia ago were drawn by the availability of copper.
History
The region for centuries flourished as a cultural crossroads of trade and Buddhism along the Silk Road. Thirty kilometers from the Afghan capital of Kabul, under layers of unexcavated earth, lays an ancient Buddhist monastery. Started around the first century A.D., the site, Mes Aynek, is a trove of Buddhist monastery ruins, statues, and stupas attesting to the prolific role that Afghanistan played in the proliferation of Buddhism in Central and East Asia.In the first-century B.C., the Yuezhi people were forcibly driven westward from East Central Asia to Ferghana and Bactria in present-day northern Afghanistan. Prior to around 126 B.C., Bactria had been governed by the Indo-Greeks, vestiges of the Alexandrine empire, who promulgated their rule and the Hellinistic culture throughout the region. Once the Yuezhi took Bactria from the Indo-Greeks, they established the Kushan Empire which played a prominent role in the early periods of the Silk Road. It was through the Kushans that the woolen textiles, gold, and silver of Rome flowed east; the cotton, spices, and semi-precious stones of India migrated north; the silk of China travelled west; and the rubies and lapis lazuli of Bactria and the Tarim Basin moved outwards. The Kushan Empire also played a vital role in the dissemination of Buddhism from India to Central Asia where it eventually found its way to China and then Japan. The Gandharan school of Buddhist art, propagated by the Kushan Empire, shows express evidence of the influences of anthropomorphic Greco-Roman forms and stylized Indian naturalism. In this way, the Kushan Empire
Kushan Empire
The Kushan Empire originally formed in the early 1st century AD under Kujula Kadphises in the territories of ancient Bactria on either side of the middle course of the Oxus in what is now northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and southern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.During the 1st and early 2nd centuries...
not only directly facilitated the transmission of Buddhism to Central and East Asia, but also left an ineffaceable mark on the ensuing Buddhist artwork of Asia. While Silk Road trade in the region diminished slightly around the 3rd and 4th centuries when Kushan rule was broken up by the Sassanid Empire
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
, religious eclecticism continued in much of the region. It was during this time period that many of the artifacts that are being unearthed at the Mes Aynak site were produced. In some places around the monastery, the ground is littered with slag, the blackened waste from the refining and smelting of copper ore, leading archaeologists to believe that the monks once exploited the lucrative copper deposits until deforestation halted their supply of timber fuel. French archaeologist documenting the site, stresses that while a copper mine might be profitable for the next 20 to 30 years, the wealth of cultural history that would be unearthed and preserved from Mes Aynak is for everybody and for the future of Afghanistan. Nevertheless, while an enduring manifestation of Afghanistan’s rich cultural past would serve well to remind the world of the country’s reputable history, during this time of political and economic instability, it is hard to justify.
Mes Aynak could provide new data on both the origin and demise of the religion here. Researchers now believe that as late as the 7th century A.D., when Islam arrived in the area, Buddhism was still making inroads as far west as Iran and as far north as Turkmenistan. "It's quite tantalizing to consider how Buddhism coexisted with the new religion,". There are also Hindu deities from that late period at Tepe Sardar, a large monastery located in the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni. Further evidence from Mes Aynak could help provide a new picture of religious blending at an important historical juncture.
Archeological Significance
Mes Aynak is impressively large, scattered in the hills around the ruined temple are dozens of areas, the ancient Buddhist site called Tepe Kafiriat; and is comparable with those of Bamyan and HaddaHadda
Hadda is a Greco-Buddhist archeological site located in the ancient area of Gandhara, near the Khyber Pass, ten kilometers south of the city of Jalalabad in today's eastern Afghanistan.-Background:...
. The spectacular Buddhist ruins that includes a monastery and stupas were discovered since the 1960s. The monastery site is so massive that it's easily a 10-year campaign of archaeology, three years may be just enough time only to document what's there. As the MGC wouldn't want to be blamed for razing history at Mes Aynak, an informal understanding between MGC and the Afghan government was reached that initially gave archaeologists three years for a salvage excavation. During the early 2000s, widespread looting occurred at the Buddhist sites after the Kabul government found it difficult to impose control. Archaeologists are now uncovering dozens of statues with missing heads that were broken off to sell.
The rescue excavations which began in 2009 at Gol Hamid, which lies in a mountain pass adjacent to a Chinese camp. Work was undertaken by the National Institute of Archaeology and the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan. Part of the monastic compound was excavated, leading to the discovery of a vaulted chapel, monks’ cells and storerooms. Polychrome terracotta statues were also found, including a sleeping Buddha. A monastery complex has also been dug out, revealing hallways and rooms decorated with frescoes and filled with clay and stone statues of standing and reclining Buddhas, some as high as 10ft (3m); more than 150 statues have been found so far though many remain in place. Large ones are too heavy to be moved, and the team lacks the chemicals needed to keep small ones from disintegrating when extracted. An area that was once a courtyard is dotted with stupas standing four or five feet high. In April 2011 the number of archaeologists would rise from 30 to 65. The number of labourers would be increased tenfold, from 90 to 900. The site is guarded by a force of 1,600 soldiers.
Among the finds are a 25ft-long reclining Buddha and wall paintings. Archaeologists also discovered a pair of large feet, which are all that remains of a 10 ft statue. An ancient wooden Buddha was also discovered, which very rarely survived. Although comparatively little has been excavated, the archaeologists are supposed to complete their work within 14 months. Mining is due to start in 2014. The plan is to document the site thoroughly and attempt to remove as many of the smaller stupas and statues as possible for conservation in the National Museum or possibly a future local museum. Because the buildings are mudbrick and schist, a wholesale relocation isn't possible.
Most important portable finds have been transferred to the National Museum in Kabul, the excavation already found at this site, should be enough to fill the Afghan national museum. On 15 March 2011, finds went on display in Kabul. “Along the Silk Road: Recent Excavations from Mes Aynak”, featuring 70 of the most important discoveries. The government has plans to build a new museum near Mes Aynak, on a site in Logar province. It will be five miles from the mine. There are hopes of moving some of the stupa bases and reconstructing them in the new museum. The importance of Mes Aynak has been acknowledged by many archaeologists specialising in Afghanistan.
Copper Mine
In November 2007, a 30-year lease was granted for the copper mine to the China Metallurgical Group for $3 billion, making it the biggest foreign investment and private business venture in Afghanistan’s history. Allegations have persisted that the then-minister of mines obstructed the contracting process and accepted a large bribe to eliminate the other companies involved in the bid.Transport
Aynak is accessed via a 15 km motorable track from the surfaced road between Kabul and Gardez. The mining lease holders proposed to build a railway to serve the copper mine; along the North-South corridor.Training Camp
Mes Aynak was also an Al-QaedaAl-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
training camp
Afghan training camp
An Afghan training camp is a camp or facility used for militant training located in pre-2002 Afghanistan. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Indian intelligence officials estimated that there were over 120 training camps operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, run by a variety of...
in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. It was opened in 1999 after US Cruise Missile
Cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
s destroyed the camp at Khowst in August 1998; Mes Aynak itself was partially abandoned after the Taliban granted al Qaeda permission to open the al Farouq
Al Farouq training camp
The Al Farouq training camp, also known as "the airport camp", was an alleged Al-Qaeda training camp near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Camp attendees received small-arms training, map-reading, orientation, explosives training, and other training....
camp in Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
. Thus, for a brief time in 1999, Mes Aynak was the only Al-Qaeda camp operating in Afghanistan. It offered a full range of instruction, including an advanced commando course taught by senior al-Qaeda member Sayf al Adl.