AUTOMATED MODELING OF THE GREAT BUDDHA STATUE IN BAMIYAN, AFGHANISTAN

In the great valley of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, two big standing Buddha statues were carved out of the sedimen-tary rock of the region around the second to fourth centu-ries AD. The larger statue was 53 meters high while the smaller Buddha measured 35 m. The two colossal statues were demolished in March 2001 by the Taleban, using mortars, dynamite and rockets. After the destruction, a consortium was founded to rebuild the Great Buddha at original shape, size and place. Our group performed the required computer reconstruction, which can serve as the basis for the physical reconstruction. The work has been done using three different types of images in parallel and in this paper we present our results of the 3D computer reconstruction of the statue using automated approaches of image analysis.