A'erzhai Grottoes

Personally prefer this less commercial attraction, and retain the original bits and pieces, like to love Buddhist culture can go

It's fun. But the weather is a bit hot here. You can bring sunscreen and the like. The nearby food is also relatively close and quite delicious.

Azhai Grottoes are 30 kilometers southwest of Gongkahan Township of Otok Banner, and stand a mysterious and lonely red sand rock hill. The mountain is about 400 meters long, about 200 meters wide from the north to the south, and about 40 meters above the surrounding surface. Although the mountain is small, the rock wall is steep, and there are many large and small grottoes on the steep cliffs, which is called "100-eye grottoes". In the long historical years, due to the natural weathering erosion, loose rock, cliff collapse, some ancient grottoes have been damaged. At present, there are 49 grottoes that can be seen, which are not arranged in the rock wall very regularly, and the south wall is the most. The grottoes can be roughly divided into upper, middle and lower three layers. In the middle and upper part of the stone wall, there are 9 relief stone towers of varying sizes dotted between the large grottoes. The structure of the grottoes is large, medium and small, all of which are square. There is only one large grotto, located in the middle of the south wall, the door is south, which may be the main grotto of the mountain. The interior has collapsed. Based on the carved traces visible outside the door, it is inferred that the cave and door frame may be wooden structures. There are steps outside the door that can go directly to the mountain and can lead to the other caves on the left and right sides, but they are all damaged. The rest are distributed on both sides of the main cave. Medium-sized grottoes, the length and width are generally 4.5 × 4.5 meters, the height is 2.5 meters, the cave room is square, the front wall is chiselled arched in the middle, and the back wall is carved in the middle of the main Buddha. There are two rows of Buddha on both sides of the cloth; the left and right sides (that is, the east and west walls) are also symmetrically carved with two rows of Buddha. There are some Buddha statue paintings on the top of the cave. The 64×64 cm lotus algae well is carved in the middle of the cave roof. The algae well is divided into 32×32 cm squares around it. There are portraits of Buddha sitting and other painted in the square. Some algae wells are in an astringent square. Small grottoes, generally 3×3 meters long and wide, high 1.5 meters, and deep from the hole into 4.65 meters. The Zhouwall is flat, the artificial chiselling is neat and orderly, the Buddha Grottoes are mud-painted and white, and there are color paintings, but most of them have been weathered and peeled off. One of the slightly larger, four wall paintings of Buddha statues, surrounded by hidden Tibetan and Mongolian texts. Some caves also have Tibetan on the stone wall outside the door. The top of the mountain is flat, there are architectural relics left, but the layout is unclear. On the hillside and at the foot of the mountain, there are also relics such as green glazed tiles, bricks, tiles and subporcelain tiles, which may have fallen from the top of the mountain or from the mountain wall grottoes. This is the "100-eye cave" on the Ordos plateau, a small lonely mountain, many magical grottoes, together constitute a colorful and confusing painting and carving art palace. What is this a miracle left over from the era? Some people, according to the structure of the grottoes, the shape of the stone towers and the content of the remaining murals, inferred that it is a legacy of the Yuan Dynasty or a later period of the Yuan Dynasty, but it is difficult to confirm. Such a huge project, such a delicate art, is enough to make people today amazed and sigh.