I came a bizarre and incredible image whilst surfing the web this week and it’s something I had never seen before.
For a start I wondered if it was some modern bunker, maybe a wartime hideaway of some sort. But then I realised that this huge domed structure is cut directly from the bedrock, which I believe is sandstone, and it reminded me of the rock-cut churches of Ethiopia.
This structure is situated in the Samangan Province of Afghanistan and is more than 1,500 years old. It is known as Takht-E Rostam and what we are looking at isn’t a church or a mosque, but a Buddhist Stupa monastery complex, located 2 km south of town of Haibak and 3 km southwest of the town of Samangan.
This structure is entirely cut from the bedrock, a stupa surmounted by a harmika with several rough-cut caves around the base. A hoard of Ghaznavid coins was found by chance in one of the caves.The purpose and importance of the monastery was lost in the Muslim conquests of Afghanistan.
History fell into myth and legend and the site was incorporated into Persian mythology in the story of Rostam and Sohrab, which is part of the 10th century Persian epic Shahnameh, written by the Persian poet Ferdowski.
Learn more about this bizarre and incredible structure, as well as other nearby structures in this video.