Maytszishan Caves — China

Buddhist complex Maytszishan little known. It is located in Gansu Province in northwest China. This is a striking architectural complex, carved out of the rock. Maytszishan has 7,000 Buddhist sculptures and nearly 1,000 square meters of murals. 11 more images after the break...

Maytszishan is just a few miles south of the Great Silk Road. Many of the monks chose to stay in these caves and work there.

One of the earliest written records about this are found in the biographies of the two monks Tanhonga and Huanggang, who meditated there with his disciples.

Huge Buddha is almost perpendicular to the side of the mountain - the highest is more than 16 meters in height. Stairs that lead up and around the caves were originally made of wood, but after been fitted with metal supports, for security purposes.