★ UNESCO
World Heritage
World Heritage
📷 大 董 · Pexels
Where in the world
China
Longmen Grottoes
Imperial China · China
Field notes
- civilizations
- Imperial China
- types
- Cave painting · Sanctuary
- occupied
- 493 CE — 1,127 CE
- country
- China
The site
The Longmen Grottoes, or Dragon's Gate Grottoes, are among the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art, carved into the limestone cliffs south of Luoyang in Henan province. As many as 100,000 statues of Shakyamuni Buddha and his disciples fill some 2,345 caves, ranging from an inch to fifty-seven feet tall. Many were once painted, and the site holds nearly 2,500 stelae and inscriptions above the northward-flowing Yi River.
