Photogrammetric Reconstruction of the Great Buddha of Bamiyan, Afghanistan

Abstract In the valley of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, approximately 1700 years ago, two large standing Buddha statues were carved out of the sedimentary rock of the region. They were 53 and 38 m high and the larger one figured as the tallest representation of a standing Buddha in the world. In March 2001 the Taleban government militia demolished the colossal statues. After the destruction a group from ETH Zürich completed the computer reconstruction of the Great Buddha, which can serve as the basis for a physical reconstruction. This paper reports the results of the image‐based 3D reconstruction of the statue, performed on three different data‐sets in parallel and using different photogrammetric techniques and algorithms.