The Pilgrimage · Dunhuang, Gansu, north-west China, on the old Silk Road
Recently added · pending full review
Walk along the cliff of caves, step into the small room where some 50,000 manuscripts lay sealed for some nine centuries, stand at the feet of the great Buddha of 695, and walk round the central pillar of a cave of the Northern Wei.
The number of caves, the height of the great Buddha and what is in Caves 17 and 254 come from published sources; the size and place of every cave, the cliff and the nine-storey building are approximate, and the statues and paintings are our own simple renderings, not copies; the stone is drawn in code, not photographed. Gold markers open notes on what you see, including what is measured, what is approximate and what is unknown. Objects in the cases are renditions, not replicas.
Preparing the site…
Building the next section…
A model, not a photograph. The linked chapter and Vault pages carry the full sources and the evidence verdict.
The Pilgrimage · recently added, pending full review
Walk along the cliff of caves, step into the small room where some 50,000 manuscripts lay sealed for some nine centuries, stand at the feet of the great Buddha of 695, and walk round the central pillar of a cave of the Northern Wei.
This site is a walkable 3D model and needs a browser with WebGL. Its notes draw on these pages of the archive: