Dunhuang

Located in an oasis of the Taklamakan Desert in western China, the ancient city of Dunhuang became an important outpost of the Silk Roads nearly two thousand years ago. 

For centuries, it flourished as a center for Buddhist worship and learning. Generations of monks and pilgrims carved shrines out of the rock cliffs at Mogao, gradually building one of the greatest collections of Buddhist painting, sculpture, and architecture in the world.

The city was largely abandoned and forgotten due to trade routes shifting during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). In the late nineteenth century, a Daoist monk discovered the so-called “library cave,” a sealed treasury containing ancient manuscripts in seventeen languages from the previous millennia. Explorers from around the world arrived at Dunhuang, hailing it as one of the most important archaeological finds of the century.