Twenty years ago, the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan shocked the world. Preserved for millennia, these statues disappeared in an instant, victims of the purifying madness of the Taliban. The ancient sites of Palmyra and Hatra, the museums of Mosul and Raqqa and various religious monuments have been reduced to rubble. The international community is now attempting to restore and reconstruct these witnesses of time and past civilizations.