Ancient site, Mes Aynak, needs saving not destroying

Just like the Bamiyan Buddha statues that were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban in Afghanistan, another Buddhist site in Afghanistan, is slated for destruction end of this year. The site is Mes Aynak, a 2,600-year-old Buddhist site in Logar province, Afghanistan. All of the temples, monasteries, statues as well as the Bronze age material will be destroyed.

What would take 30-35 years to salvage, archaeologists have been given just three months to salvage whatever Buddhist artefacts they can find before the site is converted to a massive open-pit style copper mine by a Chinese government-owned company called China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC). Six villages and the mountain range will also be destroyed in the process.

Brent Huffman, filmmaker and professor, is doing whatever he can to save the destruction of this historical site he believes is the missing link showing Afghanistan's historic role in Asia. He says destroying Mes Aynak is equivalent to wiping Machu Picchu off the map.

More on CNN - Ancient site needs saving not destroying

CNN Editor's note on the writer, Brent Huffman, of the above article:
Brent Huffman is a documentary filmmaker and assistant professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He started making a film about the Mes Aynak site in the summer of 2011 thinking he would be documenting the site before it was demolished and recording the process of rescue archeology. Now he hopes he can use his film to raise awareness to actually save Mes Aynak.

Watch a video on YouTube..