The
Mogao Caves or
Mogao Grottoes , also known as the
Caves of the Thousand Buddhas , form a system of 492 temples southeast of the center of
Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the
Silk Road, in
Gansu province,
China. The caves may also be known as the
Dunhuang Caves, however, this term is also used as a collective term to include other Buddhist cave sites in the Dunhuang area, such as the
Western Thousand Buddha Caves, and the
Yulin Caves farther away. The caves contain some of the finest examples of
Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out in 366 CE as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. The Mogao Caves are the best known of the
Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with
Longmen Grottoes and
Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient Buddhist sculptural sites of China.