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Longyou Caves (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 2 days ago by plyth@feddit.org to c/wikipedia@lemmy.world

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In June 1992, four farmers in Longyou found the caves when they drained the water of five small ponds in their village. The ponds turned out to be five large manmade caverns. ... They have been determined to be more than 2000 years old and their construction is not recorded in any historical documents.

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[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

They have been determined to be more than 2000 years old and their construction is not recorded in any historical documents.

Although near each other, uniform in construction and design, and apparently made for the same unknown purpose, the caves have no cross-connecting passages, even though excavating a small tunnel would have required very little effort compared to the task undertaken to excavate any one cave.

my theory? ancient secret base for either some rich person or some government. or maybe religious or artistic in nature, given the ornamental wall carvings and aesthetic design

I wonder how long it took to dig all of that by hand. that's nuts.

[–] Hule@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

The homepage states 900.000 cubic meters of stone in total. That truly is amazing.

I suppose there could have been caves there before, and they only expanded them.