Longmen Grottoes, Luoyang

The Longmen Grottoes house over 100,000 Buddhist figures carved into limestone cliffs along the Yi River, a concentration of religious sculpture unmatched in scale. Created between 493 and 1127 CE, these caves span more than 28 times the construction period of Temple of Heaven, Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, which was completed in just 14 years. The largest statue, Vairocana at 17 meters tall, dwarfs any seated Buddha at the Summer Palace. Tang-dynasty carvers perfected expressive faces and flowing robes using iron tools that left distinctive chisel marks still visible today.