Around 100,000 Buddhist figures in something between 1,400 and 2,300 caves cut into the cliffs 12 km south of Luoyang, ranging from an inch high to 57 feet, carved from 493 to 1127 across four phases: the Northern Wei to 534, a slow stretch through regional war, the Tang expansion from 626, and a long decline under the Northern Song. The Fengxian cave, cut between 672 and 676, holds the Vairocana Buddha at 17.14 metres, and the two facts about it that matter are connected. Empress Wu Zetian paid for it out of her own purse, twenty thousand strings of what the records call her rouge and powder money, and the face is believed to have been modelled on hers, so the largest Buddha here may be a portrait of the only woman ever to rule China in her own name. Much was taken to Western museums early in the twentieth century, Japanese forces looted the site during the war, and the Cultural Revolution knocked the heads off a great many statues. UNESCO listed it in 2000.
Henan, China
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