Over 500 Ancient Grottoes Discovered in Gansu

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 03, 2002

Over 500 Ancient Grottoes Discovered in Gansu

Archeologists have discovered two dagobas and over 500 grottoes with numerous Buddha statues in an 50-kilometer strip along the Jinghe River, according to sourcesof the Jingchuan county government, in northwest China's Gansu Province.

Experts say that the "grotto corridor" is composed of five groups, with the grottoes thought to be constructed at different times during the Sixteen Kingdoms Period (317--420).

Experts believe more than 400 of them were once inhabited by Buddhist monks, and the grottoes might be the earliest of their kind in China.

These grottoes, founded by experts in a survey of local Buddhist relics along the Jinghe River in eastern Gansu, are much the same as those in the northern section of the famous Dunhuang Grottoes in the west of the province, but the number almost doublethat in Dunhuang.