Located on the eastern slope of Rattling Sand Mountain (Mingshashan) southeast of Dunhuang County in Gansu Province, the Mogao Grottoes (also known as Thousand Buddha Cave) is one of three noted grottoes in China and also the largest, best preserved and richest treasure house of Buddhist art in the world.

In AD 366, during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, a monk named Yue Seng chiseled the first cave here. The endeavor continued through later dynasties, including the Northern Wei (386- 534), Western Wei (535-556), Northern Zhou (557-581), Sui (581-618), Tang (618-907), Five Dynasties (907-960), Song (960-1279), Western Xia (1038-1227) and Yuan (1279-1368), resulting in the fantastic group of caves that can been seen today.