Longyou Caves

The Longyou Caves (Chinese: 龙游石窟), also called the Xiaonanhai Stone Chambers (Chinese: 小南海石室), are a group of 24 artificial sandstone caverns located at Fenghuang Hill, near the village of Shiyan Beicun on the Qu River in Longyou County, Quzhou prefecture, Zhejiang province, China.

[1] It is unknown when the caves were created; they are mentioned in a 17th century poem by the Yu Xun, and clay from pots dated to between 206BC and 23 AD was found in silt within the caves.

[1] In June 1992, four farmers in Longyou found the caves when they drained the water of five small ponds in their village.

[citation needed] They have been determined to be more than 2000 years old and their construction is not recorded in any historical documents.

[2] About 200 km (120 mi) to the northwest, the Huashan Grottoes at the riverbanks of the Xin'an River somewhat resemble the Longyou Caves but are likely to have been built more than 1,500 years later during the late Ming Dynasty (1551–1667 AD).