28th August 2014, the bidding process for the design of The Bamiyan Museum and Cultural Centre was officially announced at the opening of Bamiyan’s 6th Silk Road Festival, celebrating Bamiyan’s unique cultural heritage. This was an opportune moment to launch the bidding process for The Bamiyan Museum and Cultural Centre, which will be a space for exhibitions and training, bringing together the history of Afghanistan showcasing a crossroads of different civilizations, from the historical Silk Road.
Culture represents an essential element of nation building in every country, and as such has an important role to play in Afghanistan. Culture also makes a valuable contribution to socio-economic development, and in the case of Bamiyan it paves the way towards future tourism opportunities and the participation of local communities here, in not only protecting and preserving their own cultural heritage, but also sharing it.
The site is located on the plateau of Chawni Mountain and the picture shows the flat elevation of the site at approximately 26,000 metres squared. The north and west side of the site overlook expansive views of the Buddha cliffs and niches. Tourists and the local community already enjoy spectacular paramount views of the Bamiyan valley from this vantage point. It’s northern and western boundary lines are defined by the Foladi river at the base of the mountain and the eastern and southern part of the site border local municipality buildings with a main entrance road approaching into the site from the south.
The design competition will be open for plans towards the end of the year and bids are welcome from qualified and experienced organisations with a vision for sharing the importance of cultural identity of the Bamiyan Valley from the past, present and into the future.
UNESCO thanked key stakeholders and partners involved in the protection and preservation of The World Heritage and Cultural Landscape of The Bamiyan Valley and in particular The Government of Korea for providing the $5.4 million for the building of The Museum and Cultural Centre.
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