Now, the people of Bamiyan are firm in their belief that the Buddhas must be restored to raise the status of the valley and attract tourists -- and income.
"If it is not possible for both of them, at least one of them can be rebuilt," provincial governor Habiba Surobi said.
But the international experts say the local people would be naive to expect the relics to ever be returned to their original state.
"Everybody is asking when the Buddhas will be reconstructed," Toubekis said, but adds: "At this moment there is no decision it is going towards this direction."
The main reason, he said, is that the statues are "much more fragmented than everybody thought. Nobody at the moment is behind putting it together like a puzzle, because I think it is not possible."
There is however the possibility of employing the archeological process of anastylosis by which ruined monuments are reassembled from old fragments and, when necessary, new materials.
But Toubekis believes that if the Bamiyan Buddhas were rebuilt in this manner they could lose their world heritage status and their value as tourism drawcards could be diminished.
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