Refine your search

The results of your search are listed below alongside the search terms you entered on the previous page. You can refine your search by amending any of the parameters in the form and resubmitting it.

Select all Deselect all Add selection to lightbox
Large Small
Thumbnails per page
Sir Marc Aurel Stein (usually known as Aurel Stein) KCIE, FBA (Hungarian: Stein Mark Aurel) (26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, mainly concerned with exploring ancient Central Asia. He was also a professor at various Indian universities.
Banditry was just one of the many hazards facing travellers on the Silk Road. Offerings were made at the Mogao Caves, among other sacred locations along the way, to ask for safe passage, or to give thanks for safe return.
The Mogao Caves, or Mogao Grottoes (Chinese: Mògāo kū) (also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas and Dunhuang Caves) form a system of 492 temples 25 km (15.5 miles) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China.<br/><br/> The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The first caves were dug out 366 CE as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient sculptural sites of China. The caves also have famous wall paintings.