Documentary photographer Simon Norfolk is featured in this month's issue of The National Geographic. Capturing the incredible story of a Buddhist complex in Afghanistan under threat by both Taliban attack and a huge copper-mining operation...
Text by Hannah Bloch, National Geographic
"DELAYS IN THE COPPER MINING HAVE GIVEN ARCHAEOLOGISTS CONSIDERABLY MORE TIME TO EXCAVATE. THE PAST THEY'RE REVEALING PRESENTS A STARK CONTRAST TO THE VIOLENCE AND DISORDER OF THEIR OWN TIME."
About an hours drive along the Gardez highway South of Kabul, beyond the bustling shops, the trucks spewing diesel exhaust, and the clatter of donkey carts, there is a sharp left turn onto an unpaved road. In a district of Logar Province friendly to the Taliban, the vicinity has been shaken by roadside bombs, intermittent rocket attacks, kidnappings, and murders. The road continues along a dry riverbed, past small villages, paramilitary roadblocks, sentry towers, and an empty, blue-roofed compound cordoned off with concertina wire.
