Mysterious Purpose

Although the technical problem remains a mystery, the grottoes' construction purpose is even more bewildering. The building of the Great Wall was to defend against invaders, and the Egyptian pyramids were to display the power of Pharaohs. But why was the Longyou Grottoes built? Was it a plain quarry, the imperial mausoleum or a unique project at some special time?

The unintentional discovery of the grottoes on June 9, 1992 by a group of common villagers unveiled a cluster of stone constructions of a huge scale. But there are absolutely no historical records about the grottoes. For a dozen years, opinions have varied greatly on the purpose of the grottoes.

  Quarry Theory

Standing at the bottom of spacious and dark grottoes, one cannot help thinking of a quarry, because most of the walls' arched patterns have been proved to be the traces left in the quarrying process. Zhou Shaoxiong, a Vice Professor from Hangzhou Normal University who was the first expert to arrive at Longyou Grottoes, holds the view of Longyou Grottoes being quarries.

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  Disappeared Stones

To investigate the quarry theory, some experts decided to research it from the other angle: If the grottoes are quarries, then where did their stones go?

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  Storehouse Conjecture

But this reminds the experts of the other possibility that the Longyou Grottoes were once storehouses, because of the grottoes situated along the river, bringing much convenience for transportation.

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The researches prove that both the quarry and storehouse theories are not reliable. But the grottoes must have been built for some purposes. Are there some more suggestions about the functions and intention of the mysterious Longyou Grottoes?

(Author: Jeff)

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