The story of the explorer is about 500 words!

Yungang Grottoes, located in the northern cliff of Wuzhou Mountain in the western suburb of Datong City, Shanxi Province, is one of the largest ancient grottoes in China, with a length of 1000 meters from east to west, 45 existing main grottoes, 252 large and small grottoes and more than 5 1000 stone carvings. According to documents, during the peaceful years of the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 460-465), the famous monk Yao Tan presided over the construction of five grottoes in Wuzhousai (Pingcheng, now Datong) in the suburbs of Beijing. The existing 16-20 grottoes in Yungang were the earliest so-called "Tan Yao's fifth grottoes". Most of the other major caves were completed before Emperor Xiaowen moved to Luoyang in the 18th year of Taihe in the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 494).

Judging from the age inscriptions and artistic styles preserved in the grottoes, this magnificent art project is basically a relic of the Northern Wei Dynasty, with a history of 1500 years. There are 53 existing caves and 5 1000 stone carvings. The highest Buddha statue is 17 meters, and the smallest is only a few centimeters. Yungang Grottoes are famous for their magnificent momentum, rich content and fine carving. Li Daoyuan, an ancient geographer, described it this way: "Because of the rock structure, the truth is huge and rare in the world. Shantang is opposite to Shuitang. " This is a true portrayal of the magnificent scenery of the grottoes at that time. The sculpture in Yungang Grottoes absorbs and draws lessons from the Indian Gandhara Buddhism art, and at the same time organically integrates the traditional artistic style of China, which has a very important position in the history of sculpture art in the world. Today, it has become a tourist attraction that Chinese and foreign tourists admire and yearn for. Yungang Grottoes, one of the three largest grottoes in China, is a world-famous art treasure house.

Among dozens of caves in Yungang, the fifth cave of Tan Yao is the earliest and the most magnificent. Wuliu Cave and Wuhua Cave are rich and colorful, which are the essence of Yungang art.

Second place Mogao Grottoes

Mogao Grottoes, also known as "Thousand Buddha Cave", is located at the foot of Mingsha Mountain, 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang County, and is named after its location in Mogao Grottoes. It is the largest and most famous Buddhist art grottoes in China. It is distributed in three or four layers on the cliff of Mingsha Mountain, with a total length of 1.6 km. There are 492 existing grottoes, with a total area of 45,000 square meters of murals and more than 265,438 colored sculptures. Grottoes vary in size, statues vary in height, the big ones are magnificent, the small ones are exquisite, the accomplishments are deep and the imagination is amazing. Murals are mostly Buddhist stories, such as Sakyamuni's life story, previous life sacrifice and so on.

There are portraits of Buddha, Bodhisattva, Heavenly King, Lux and Hanazono Sakura Buddha, as well as people with feathers, flying people, flowers and birds, animals and so on. Although the murals have been eroded by wind and sand for thousands of years, they are still bright in color and clear in lines, which makes people have to admire the exquisite art and creative spirit of ancient artists.

"Escape", big also, "Ming", sheng also. Because this place plays a very important role in developing the vast western regions, it has been named "Dunhuang" since the Han Dynasty.

Grottoes developed on a cliff high in the desert, so they were named "Mogao Grottoes". In ancient Chinese, "Mo" and "Mo" were common, later called "Mogao Grottoes".

Dunhuang is located at the westernmost end of Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province. It is called "Guazhou" because it is rich in beautiful melons in the Spring and Autumn Period. There was Mingsha Mountain in the south of the Tang Dynasty, also known as "sandbar". Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, there have been frequent business trips on the Silk Road, and Dunhuang has become the main road leading to the Western Regions and Chang 'an. Because it is located in the throat of the Silk Road, it can be described as an important town. At that time, villages and docks were one after another, and chickens and dogs heard about each other. Historically known as "Huarong Road". Buddhism and its art spread eastward with the western regions as the first stop, so pagodas are everywhere and the market is prosperous. According to the literature, the Lantern Festival is second only to Chang 'an, and its prosperity can be seen in general. Poplar and Xinjiang poplar, like feather blankets, are the most obvious plant landscapes in Dunhuang.

Third place Yulin Cave

Yulin Grottoes, commonly known as Wanfo Gorge, is located on the Yulin River (also known as Zhen Shi River) 75 kilometers southwest of Anxi County. There are 42 caves in the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, the Xixia Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, which are distributed on the cliffs on the east and west sides of Yulin, with 428 murals on the east cliff 3 1 and the west cliff 165438. Due to natural and man-made reasons, there are few original colored sculptures in Yulin Cave, and most of the existing colored sculptures are rebuilt or reshaped by later generations.

Yulin Grottoes, the sister grottoes of Mogao Grottoes, are closely related or similar to Mogao Grottoes in terms of content, artistic style, painted sculptures and murals, but they are obviously different in many aspects and have their own unique artistic style. Especially after the Five Dynasties, the art of Mogao Grottoes showed an obvious decline trend, while Yulin Grottoes showed its characteristics of the times and unique artistic charm in terms of content, painting style and artistic level, thus enriching the connotation of this treasure house.

196 1 year, Yulin cave was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council and placed under the jurisdiction of Dunhuang Cultural Relics Research Institute.

Fourth place Longmen Grottoes

Longmen, called yique in ancient times, was generally called Longmen after Sui and Tang Dynasties, and it has been in use ever since. Located in the south of Luoyang 12.5km. Green hills here, east and west facing each other, and Wang Yang flowing from central to north, are one of the three major Buddhist art treasures in China. The statues of Longmen Grottoes are densely distributed on both sides of Yishui and east-west cliffs.

Longmen Grottoes, built around the time when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang (494), were built on a large scale in the Eastern Wei Dynasty, the Western Wei Dynasty, the Northern Qi Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty for more than 500 years, making large and small caves and niches densely distributed on the cliffs on both sides of Yishui, with a length of 1 more kilometers from north to south.

As far as its construction history is concerned, there are two largest cave statues. The first one is Xiaowen, Xuanwu and Xiaoming in the Northern Wei Dynasty, which lasted about 35 years. Emperor Taizong, Emperor Gaozong, Wu Zetian and Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty were the second generation emperors, with a total of 1 10 years. These two times were the climax of the grottoes, which lasted 150 years. According to the statistics of Longmen Wu Wen Custody 1962, there are more than 2 100 caves and statues in the two mountains, with the largest statue as high as 17 m and the smallest only 2 cm. There are about 3600 inscriptions and stone tablets and more than 40 pagodas. One-third of the statues in the Northern Wei Dynasty were in Xishan, and its representative caves were Guyang Cave, Binyang Cave, Lianhua Cave, Cave Temple and Weizi Cave. Statues in the Tang Dynasty accounted for almost two thirds, most of which were in the Western Hills. When Wu Zetian moved the capital to Dongshan, the most representative caves were Qianxi Temple, Fengxian Temple, Wanfo Cave and Kanjing Temple. Longmen Grottoes occupy a very important position in the history of sculpture art, and huge statues are typical of oriental sculptures. Especially flying in grottoes, or flying freely in flowing clouds, or flying in the air with holy fruit in hand, or playing music and singing, or spreading flowers and rain, is light and elegant, which is amazing. Among the inscriptions on Longmen Grottoes, Twenty Longmen Poems and Buddhist Inscriptions inscribed by Zhu Suiliang, a famous calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, are treasures of calligraphy art in China. In 196 1 year, the State Council was announced as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Longmen Mountain has been a tourist attraction since ancient times. There are thousands of poems about Longmen scenery written by literati in past dynasties, and many famous poets such as Li Bai, Bai Juyi and Ouyang Xiu have poems. Bai Juyi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once said, "Luoyang is the best in four rivers and mountains." "Longmen Mountain Bao" has always been known as the first of the eight scenic spots in Luoyang. Today, Longmen is full of mountains and cypresses. Flowing springs and waterfalls are a wonder. 1962, the magnificent Longmen Bridge was completed and opened to traffic, flying near the Iraqi water god, just like a rainbow lying on the waves, making the Longmen landscape more beautiful and decorated with mountains and rivers. Longmen has won praise from Chinese and foreign people for its beautiful scenery and numerous historical relics, attracting many Chinese and foreign tourists to visit.

Fifth place Maijishan Grottoes

Maijishan Grottoes, located about 40 kilometers south of Tianshui City, is one of the four largest grottoes in China. It was founded in the Sixteen Kingdoms and the late Qin Dynasty, and it has been 1500 years since its reconstruction. There are 0/94 caves/kloc-,more than 7,200 statues, murals 1300 square meters, especially clay sculpture art, which is known as the "Oriental Sculpture Art Museum". 196 1 was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council.

Maijishan is named after the shape of a pile of wheat. Grottoes were dug on cliffs, which were originally connected. During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the local earthquake divided the grottoes into east and west cliffs, and the middle part collapsed.

There are 140 grottoes in Xiya, mainly works from the Western Qin Dynasty, the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Western Wei Dynasty. There are 54 caves in the East Cliff, where most of the works from the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Sui and Tang Dynasties and beyond are concentrated. Maijishan Grottoes are mostly works before Sui and Tang Dynasties, among which seven buddha Pavilion, Wanfo Cave, Niuertang and Ji Ling are the most famous. The fourth cave, built in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, also known as the Upper seven buddha Pavilion, is the most wonderful cave in McKee. The Five Flying Groups on the Eyebrow in Cave 1-5 is the only work in ancient China that combines painting and modeling. It is full of three-dimensional and realistic features, with ethereal and elegant features, and it is a real fine grotto art. The murals in Cave 127 rank first in Maijishan Grottoes, and Vimalakīrti's paintings are magnificent and exquisite, which is considered as the origin of large-scale paintings in Vimalakīrti in the future. There is also the largest, earliest and most complete western pure land mural in China, and Zhou Muwang's "Meeting the Empress Dowager", a local theme work. The clay sculpture of Maijishan Grottoes pays attention to the vivid expression of form, is full of life breath and has a strong secularization tendency. Maijishan area is regarded as a tourist attraction in Longshang because of its beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River.

Sixth place Bingling Temple Grottoes

Bingling Temple Grottoes, located 80 kilometers southwest of Lanzhou, are cultural treasures on the Silk Road. After visiting Liujiaxia Reservoir with rippling blue waves and clear water and sky, you can see Bingling Temple Grottoes on the hanging rocks in the west of the reservoir. Grottoes * * * have 34 caves, 149 niches, 800 stone sculptures and clay sculptures, and 900 square meters of murals.

Founded in the first year of the Western Qin Dynasty (about 420 AD), it is a major Buddhist resort in the Ming Dynasty. Among them, there is a sitting Buddha on the rock wall, 27 meters high. The sculpture is vivid and vivid, which fully shows the superb skills of artists in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

"Tangshu Cave" ("Ghost Cave" in Qiang language) is the oldest and largest cave in Dongting Lake of Bingling Temple. Grotto murals are mostly Buddhist words and portraits, with straight brushwork and smooth lines. They have a distinct cultural background of returning to the west and are national key cultural relics protection units.

Seventh place Xiangtang Temple Grottoes

Xiangtang Temple Grottoes, located in the new urban area of Handan City, Hebei Province, were built in the Northern Qi Dynasty, and were added in the late Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. Xiangtang Temple is divided into two caves, north and south, with a distance of 15km. There are 16 caves and 3400 statues. The stone carvings in the cave are exquisite and ingenious. Its affiliated buildings are large in scale, with pavilions and pavilions built on the mountain, which is a precious heritage of ancient architecture, sculpture, painting and calligraphy in China.

Beixiangtang Temple Grottoes are located at the waist of Gushan, east of Xincheng Village. They are built between steep cliffs and divided into three groups: south, north and middle. Among them, there is a pavilion in front of the middle group Sakyamuni cave, which looks like a pavilion, and a tall king is carved on both sides of the cave; There is a 15 1 Buddha statue in the Giant Buddha Cave. The Buddha sitting on the altar is nearly 4 meters high and solemn. The cave, named after the inscribed scriptures on the inner and outer walls, is a natural treasure house for studying calligraphy and Buddhist history.

At the foot of Beixiangtang Mountain, there is an abandoned Chorakuji Temple site, and two Song Dynasty stone buildings are still preserved. There is a plane octagonal pagoda in front, which looks like nine floors but is actually five floors. It is an eye-catching symbol of Xiangtang Temple Grottoes.

Nanxiangtang Temple Grottoes are located in the north of Xizhifang Village at the southern foot of Gushan Mountain, on the north bank of Fuyang River. There are seven grottoes, which are built on the mountain and divided into two floors. Its Chinese Yan Cave is the largest, 4.9 meters high and 6.3 meters wide. * * There is 1228 Buddha statue, named after the Huayan Sutra of Dafang Guangfo in the cave. The Thousand Buddha Cave is the best preserved, with 1028 Buddha statues. The cave walls are lined with Buddha statues, and the top of the cave is covered with flying reliefs, which are lifelike, exquisite and elegant. In front of the cave area, there are main halls, attached halls, pavilions and other buildings built in the Qing Dynasty, and there is a Song Tower in the southwest of the cave area. The stupa and grottoes set each other off and stand in the green hills, which is very spectacular.

Xiangtang Temple Grottoes have a unique position in the history of China Grottoes' art development, and they are the connection points of the artistic styles of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Eighth place Qizil Thousand Buddha Cave

Qizil Grottoes (or Thousand Buddha Caves in Qizil) are located in Mingwutag Mountain in Qizil Township, Baicheng County, adjacent to Kuqa. These caves were dug on the cliffs on the north bank of Muzate Valley. It is 73 kilometers west of Kuqa and 67 kilometers east of Baicheng. It is the largest cave group with the earliest excavation and the westernmost geographical location in China. Excavation began in the third century (the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty), reached its peak in the fifth and seventh centuries, and gradually stopped at the end of the eighth century. Duration is also unique in all countries of the world.

Qizil Grottoes and Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes are called "Four Grottoes" in China. However, Qizil Grottoes is the earliest excavated grottoes in China, which was built in the 3rd century, even earlier than the Mogao Grottoes. There are 236 numbered caves, including 35 caves 135 with complete shapes and 80 murals, with a total area of 1 10,000 square meters. Its unique cave shape and murals can represent the level of Qiuci culture and have high research value. 196 1 was listed as the first batch of key cultural relics protection units in China.

Ninth place Gongxian Cave Temple

Gongxian Cave Temple is another treasure house of Buddhist art in the Northern Wei Dynasty after Longmen Grottoes. It is located about 55 kilometers northeast of Luoyang, Kyoto, on the stone wall under Dali Mountain in the east of Mangshan Mountain. Go back to the Yellow River and face the Ilo. It has been one of the famous tourist attractions in Luoyang since ancient times, with beautiful mountains and rivers, lush trees and lush bamboo forests. Cave Temple, formerly known as Xixuan Temple, is a magnificent building complex. The following year (500-503 AD), a grotto was dug in Xuan Wudi (Yuanke), which was rebuilt in the Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Tang, Song, Jin and Ming Dynasties until the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. The carving of Buddha statues is mainly in the Northern Wei Dynasty, with more in the Northern Qi and Tang Dynasties. There are five grottoes, 1,000 shrines, 255 small shrines, three huge cliffs, 7,743 grottoes and more than 200 inscriptions.

Tenth Hundred Seeds Thousand Buddha Cave

There are 83 caves on the cliffs on the west bank of Mugougu in the middle of the Flame Mountain, more than 40 kilometers southeast of Turpan, among which more than 40 have murals of 1.200 square meters. The earliest cave excavation was in the heyday of the 6th century, and in the middle of the 9th century, Gaochang Kingdom was Uighur. Buddha statues and murals have been damaged to the same extent, partly for religious reasons and partly by explorers in the 20th century.