The stupas
or
The architectural monuments on the Indo-Bactrian Royal Road
and
The Colossi of Bamiyan
When, at the beginning of the 19th century, travelers and scientists discovered the Buddhas of Bamiyan and numerous stupas along the Indo-Bactrian road and published their first reports, Carl Ritter immediately understood that they bore witness to a global historical phenomenon that had until then gone almost unnoticed, a vanished cultural period that had developed and spread throughout this region for several centuries before and after our era. With great scientific rigor, Carl Ritter described, analyzed, evaluated, and classified all the reports, stories, and drawings available at the time and clearly highlighted the links between these monuments and Buddhism, as well as with Persian and Hellenic culture. A remarkable scientific work produced in 1838 by the exceptional German scientist Carl Ritter.
German work translated into French and annotated by Pierrick Dufray.