Yungang Grottoes

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The Yungang Grottoes are ancient Chinese Buddhist temple grottoes near the city of Datong in the province of Shanxi.They are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture and one of the three most famous ancient Buddhist sculptural sites of China，the other two are Longmen and Mogao.The site is located about 16 km south-west of the city of Datong，in the valley of the Shi Li river at the base of the Wuzhou Shan.They are an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings from the 5th and 6th centuries.The temple consists of 252 grottoes with more than 51，000 Buddha statues and statuettes.In 2001，the Yungang Grottoes were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.The Yungang Grottoes is considered by UNESCO a“masterpiece of early Chinese Buddhist cave art represent the successful fusion of Buddhist religious symbolic art from south and central Asia with Chinese cultural traditions，starting in the 5th century AD under Imperial auspices.”