Longmen Grottoes Stock Photo

Longmen Grottoes, located 12 kilometers south of Luoyang, is one of the three largest Grottoes in China. It is just like the grottoes of Yungang Grottoes in Datong and the thousand Buddha cave Grottoes in Dunhuang. Longmen is a beautiful place. There are two green hills on the East and West. Longmen Grottoes began to be excavated in Luoyang (494 A.D.) in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Later, the dynasties of East and West, North Qi, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang Dynasties were continuously built for more than 400 years. On the cliffs of the two mountains of Yi Shui, 1 kilometers long north and south, there are 97000 Buddhist statues and more than 1300 grottoes. There are 2345 existing cave niches, 3600 inscriptions and inscriptions, more than 50 pagodas and 100 thousand statues.