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.

Field notes

civilizations

Imperial China

types

Cave painting · Temple

occupied

460 CE — 525 CE

country

China