Longmen Grottoes

These are caves, located 12km south of Luoyang, in the province of Henan.
The grottoes depict Buddhist subjects, and the extend along the mountains of Xiangshan and Longmenshan, and are one of the 3 most famous ancient sculptural sites in China. There are 2.345 caves and niches, 2.800 inscriptions, 43 pagodas and more than 1.000 Buddhist images. The construction of the grottoes began in 493 AD and the area was listed by the UNESCO as World Heritage in the year 2000.