The world-famous Longmen Grottoes, is located 12km south of Luoyang. Here two mountains, namely, East Hill (Mt. Xiangshan) and West Hill (Mt. Longmen), confront each other with the Yi River traversing northward between them, just like a pair of Chinese gate towers. So during the Zhou and Qin dynasties, it was called "Yi Que" (Gate of Yi River). Later, when the Sui established its capital city in Luoyang, the palace gate was just facing Yi Que, hence the name "Longmen" which means "Dragon Gate".
Spanning a length of over 1,000 meters on the hillsides along Yi River, Longmen Grottoes, together with Mogao Caves in Dunhuang (Gansu Province) and Yungang Grottoes (Shanxi Province), are reputed as the three great stone sculpture treasure houses in China. In 2000, Longmen Grottoes was listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site.
