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The Longmen Grottoes ( ch. 龍門石窟; lit. Dragon's Gate Grottoes) or Longmen Caves are located 12km south of modern Luoyang in Henan province, China. The grottoes, which overwhelmingly depict Buddhist subjects, are densely dotted along the two mountains Xiangshan (to the east) and Longmenshan (to the west). The Yi River flows northward between them. For this reason, the area used to be called Yique (The Gate of the Yi River). From north to south, the distance covered by grottoes is about 1km. Along with Mogao and Yungang, the Longmen Grottoes are one of the three most famous ancient sculptural sites in China.
According to the Longmen Caves Research Institute , there are 2345 caves and niches, 2800 inscriptions, 40 pagodas and over 100,000 Buddhist images at the site. 30% of the caves date from the Northern Wei, 60% from the Tang, and caves from other periods less then 10%.
During the Warring States Period, the Qin general Baiqi once defeated the allied forces of Han and Wei at the site.
Construction of the grottoes themselves began in 493.
The area was inscribed on the World Heritage list in NovemberNovember is also the letter N in the NATO phonetic alphabet. November is the eleventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 30 days. From the Latin novem for " nine". It was originally the ninth month of the year in the early Roman calendar, w 2000This page is about the year 2000. See 2000 AD for the UK comic book, Number 2000 for other uses. 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar), and also the International Year for a Culture of Peace''. Events Y2K passes without the seri.