Longmen Grottoes
The
well-known Longmen Grottoes is thirteen kilometers to the south of the
city. It is the major attraction in the area, where the Yishui river cuts
its way through the cliffs and divides them into Xiangshan hill and Longmen
hill, which looks like a natural gate, so came the ancient name "Yi Que"
(the gate of Yi river).
The Longmen Grottoes stretch for one km or so on the west bank of the
Yihe River, 12 kilometers south of Luoyang. It is one of the three great
treasure houses of grotto art in China. Construction lasted 400 years
and its landscape is acclaimed to be best of the Eight Sights of Luoyang.
Longmen Grottoes, contenting 2345 grottoes and niches, 2800 stone-sculptures,
50 pagodas and 100,000 statues, were first carved in Northern-Wei, Western-Wei,
Northern-Qi, Sui. Tang, Northern-Song dynasties, and have a great deal
of remains of historical materials about religions, paintings, calligraphy,
music, costumes medicine, construction and sino-foreign transportation,
which makes the grottoes a large stone-sculpture art museum.