Saving Mes Aynak follows Afghan archaeologist Qadir Temori as he races against time to save a 5,000-year-old archaeological site in Afghanistan from imminent destruction. A Chinese state-owned mining company plans to mine the copper deposits beneath it; the operation will demolish the ancient city together with the entire mountain range.
A magnificent Buddhist settlement along the Silk Road, Mes Aynak can be the most important archaeological discovery in a generation. The excavated fraction of the site reveals that future digs will possibly redefine the history of Afghanistan and the history of Buddhism itself.
Qadir Temori and his fellow Afghan archaeologists face what seems an impossible battle against Chinese developers, Taliban terrorists and local politics to save their cultural heritage from likely erasure.