Takht-e Rostam Stupa

The Takht-e Rostam Stupa is located near the town of Haibak in what is now Samangan Province, northern Afghanistan. It sits along a route that historically connected Bactria with the Indian subcontinent, an important corridor for the spread of Buddhism.

The Takht-e Rostam Stupa is carved directly into bedrock rather than constructed above ground, making it a distinctive rock-cut Buddhist monument. The stupa and its surrounding monastery complex were carved downward into the hillside, with the dome of the stupa sitting below ground level.

The stupa and its monastery are generally dated to the 3rd or 4th century CE, during the Kushano-Sasanian or late Kushan period. This places it within the broader flourishing of Buddhist monastic architecture in the region before the arrival of Islam.

The site's name references the legendary Persian hero Rostam from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, and local folklore connects the monument to his mythology. However, the structure itself is a Buddhist monument predating the Islamic period, and the name is a later local attribution.