The Longmen Grottoes is located 12 km south of Luoyang City, along the bank of the Yi River. Overlooking the Yi River on the east and west are high hills that resemble Que, from which it acquired its original name of Yi Que. Longmen Grottoes Historic Reservation, one of the ten national cultural landscape sites is composed of Longmen Grottoes, Dongshan Grottoes, Xiangshan Temple as well as Bai Garden.
The Longmen Grottoes, Yungang Caves and Mogao Caves are regarded as the three most famous treasure houses of stone inscriptions in China. On Nov 30, 2000 World Heritage Committee put Longmen Grottes on the World Heritage List. The grottoes were started in the Northern Wei dynasty (around the year 493), and went through the East Wei dynasty, West Wei dynasty, Northern Qi dynasty, Northern Zhou dynasty as well as the Northern Song dynasty. It boasts 2,345 niches, more than 100,000 statues. The smallest is only 2cm tall, while the largest is 17.14m. The statues and niches of the Longmen Grottoes are impressive for their advanced artistic level.
龙门石窟位于洛阳市南13 公里处的伊水河畔。这里两山对峙，伊水中流，状若门阙，古称“伊阙”。龙门石窟文物风景名胜区主要由龙门石窟、东山石窟、香山寺和白园组成，是全国十大文明风景区之一。
龙门石窟与敦煌莫高窟、云冈石窟并称为中国三大石刻艺术宝库，2000年11月30 日被联合国教科文组织列入世界文化遗产名录。它开创于北魏（约公元493年），历经东魏、西魏、北齐、北周、北宋诸朝，开凿时间长达400 余年。现有佛龛2345个，佛像十万余尊，其中最大的高达17.14 米，最小的仅2 厘米。这些佛龛数量之多，艺术水平之高，令人叹为观止。
文/图：基础教学部 秦宣宣
审核：王俊华
编辑：张慧娟
