📷 LoggaWiggler · Pixabay

Where in the world

China

Yungang Grottoes

Imperial China · China

Field notes

civilizations: Imperial China
types: Cave painting · Temple
occupied: 460 CE — 525 CE
country: China

The site

The Yungang Grottoes are ancient Buddhist temple caves cut into a sandstone cliff near Datong in Shanxi, China, carved under the Northern Wei dynasty between about 460 and 525 CE. This is rock-cut architecture on a staggering scale: 53 major caves and some 51,000 niches holding as many Buddha statues along a cliff roughly 2,600 feet long. Counted among China's three great Buddhist sculptural sites alongside Longmen and Mogao, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.

Nearby sites