The Longyou Grottoes, located in Longyou area in Zhejiang province, have been reported by many news media ever since they were first found in 1992. They have been draped with mysterious colors and have attracted the attention of archaeologists, tourists and many others.
It will take about one hour to get to the destination from Jinhua City, traveling about 70 kilometer per hour. Shiyanbei is small village within Yazhou region in the middle of Zhejing province, this village, sitting at the foot of the mountain on the North and facing the water to the south, has been regarded as the treasure place with geomantic omen since olden times. Looking over from one end of the village, you can see a wide field of vision with Qujiang River revolving around and passing by the village, which gives you a sense of enchanting illusion. There is a temple in a bamboo forest on one side of the river close to the village; the temple is full of the burning incense and Buddha sound.
On June 9,1992, Grandma Wu with three other villagers, after 17 days pumping using four pumping machines, revealed to the whole world such a mystery that could match with the discovery of a UFO. Grandma Wu took the lead entering into the mysterious underground world full of magnificence and complicated confusions. The grottoes won peoples admiration and also left people confused. Groping for half a day in the grottoes was an unforgettable experience of a life. An introduction of preliminary points of view from individual observation is reported here as a reference.
I. Scale and characteristics of Longyou Grottoes:
Longyou Grottoes have been asserted as the ninth miracles in China after Great Wall and The Tomb of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. From a preliminary observation, the author thought that Longyou Grottoes surpass the Great Wall in terms of the causation, scale as well as the artistic value. It was summed up as the following eight points:
1). Longyou Grottos are huge and extensive in scale.
Judging from the 7 unearthed grottoes, the Longyou Grottoes were huge projects and the model was consistent with others. The model, pattern and the style are extremely similar. On the whole, the distribution is very reasonable, the No.1 grotto, the smallest, covers an area of 300 square meters, No.2 to No.5 grottoes covers an area of 900 square meters, 1,200 square meters, 2,000 square meters and 700 square meters respectively. The whole covering area of the 5 grottoes reaches 5,100 square meters. It is understood that there are 23 similar grottoes underground within the circumference of 1 square kilometer of the Shiyanbei village. There are about 50 to 70 similar grottoes under the ground in the Longyou area within circumference of 2.88 square kilometer. Calculated at a covering area of 1,000 square meters per grotto, one grotto will need to dig out 20,000 square meter of soil. Calculated according to 50 grottoes, it will need to dig out 1,000,000 square meter of soil. If we calculate the digging rate of 0.3 square meters per day per person, it will take 2,000,000 days to finish. According to the statistics. It will take 1,000 persons six years to work day and night without break to finish this project. Since the model was consistent, the technology was particular and delicate with the care and precision of a sculptor, the actual workload would far surpass the theoretic estimation.
2). The design of Longyou Grottoes is delicate and scientific.
The scale of the Longyou Grottoes is magnificent and momentous, the design was delicate and scientific, the construction was standard and sophisticated, and it had the glamour of superlative craftsmanship. Every grotto itself is a grand hall, presenting a shape of an inverted Carpenters Square with a small outlet and larger bottom. One side is steep and another side is 45% inclined. Four walls are straight; the edges and corners are clearly demarcated. The chiseling marks are arranged orderly on the roof and the walls of the grottoes, the chiseling line was uniform, the straight line is straight line and the curve line is curve line. The widths are all about 1 foot as if the same person made them. They looked as if they were made by machine. There are stairs leading up and down along the wall in the shape of a saw-tooth. There is distance of three meters between saw-teeth. It is four meters long from the platform to the outlet. Every grotto has huge stone pillars ranging from four at most to one at least to support the roof, the perimeters are 10 meters at most and 5 meters at least. Every Grotto is in a shape of triangle with the peak pointing inside and the base facing front. Every grotto was well separated and there was no connection between grottoes. There is a huge square pool 5 meters deep with a area of 20 square meters that was half-carved and half-laid. A clear rock picture was seen at a point of 10 meters high in No.1 grotto containing three animals a horse, bird and fish. This was the only rock picture found in the seven grottoes. The line and pattern are simple and vigorous, straightforward and uninhibited, full of artistic conceptions.
3). The construction marks of Longyou Grottoes are still fresh.
The accurate starting date of the huge and delicately designed Longyou Grottoes was nowhere to be found. The records of the human studies of Longyou started in the Han dynasty. There were no traceable records before. From historic information of Zhou and Qin dynasties and the documents from Tang dynasty, Hanyu wrote The Monumental to Xuyuan Emperor. There was the record showing "to make the room by chiseling to set a memorial temple for Emperor Yuan". Emperor Yuan was the fifth emperor in the West Zhou (eleventh century BC to 77 year BC.). There is no record of how huge the "room" is. In chiseling the stone to make the room, and the association with the grottoes in Longyou still is questionable. If it was, the grottoes were built at least 2,500 or 3,000 years ago. They have gone through numerous floods and calamities and wars in such a long period, the mountains have changed their appearance and the exposed stones have been weathered, but the shape, patterns and marks are still fresh, as if it were made yesterday.
II. The dissection and question about the Longyou Grottoes;
After on the spot investigation plus quotation of the works of classics, scientists and scholars have put forward many explanations for the Grottoes, but most of them could not justify themselves so they were unconvincing
1) Theory of the tomb (including the theory of emperor palace and theory of storage)
According to The Monumental to Xuyuan Emperor written by Hanyu, many archaeologists have put forward that the grottoes were the tombs of the old emperors, or the emperor halls or place for storage. This interpretation is undoubtedly far-fetched.
First: if it was the emperor halls for the members of the emperor to live, why there were no trace of the funeral objects and things left behind by the deceased.
Second: if it were the emperor place, it would be separated into different halls, such as the hall for morning meeting, the palace for sleeping and the place for the guards to live, etc. The grottoes were empty and nothing for blocking could be seen.
Third: if it were an emperor palace, it would have traces of the people living there, but the walls of the grottoes were still very clear and fresh.
Fourth: The distance between of the stairs is very long; it was difficult to transport the goods in and out of the grottoes. Wouldnt they consider the disasters caused by the flood, fire, earthquake and other nature calamities?
2) Theory of mining (including digging other mineral resources)
Some experts held that Longyou Grottoes were the abandoned caves left by digging the stones, it could justify itself.
First: The safest and the most economic approach is to do the work outside, it is both safe and convenient for digging, why did they design deliberately such a way to do so.
Second: the stones in the grottoes belong to the stones formed by the red soil deposits, judging from appearance, the stones are easy to get weathered, why take such huge and painstaking project to dig the stones that could easily get weathered.
Third: the underground operation would need a lot of equipment and apparatus, such as equipment for digging, illumination, transportation, etc. How did they get these problems solved? Why were no marks left at all?
Fourth: If these caves were abandoned caves for digging stones, why did they make such delicate and regular decorations.
3) The troop station theory:
Some experts held that the grottoes were the places of troop stations of emperor Yue to revenge, the explanation was that he was afraid of the leakage of the information, he dug this underground grottoes for war preparations. This interpretation also has many points to be doubted.
First: it was not a work to do in short period of time, if you spent so many years to dig and then many years to prepare, should you lose and abuse the power already weak and small?
Second: if they worried about the leakage of the information, didnt they worry about the collapse caused by sabotage from the enemy because of the leakage of the information?
Third, in the grottoes, it is impossible to use the nature illumination and there were no trace left by the artificial lighting, how all this could be explained?
Fourth: troop station should be characteristic of smooth road, promptly getting in and out, this is the common knowledge of the military, but the grotto had only one way with three meter distance between the stairs, how could they embody the strategy of the fast movement.
Fifth: if it were for the troop station, they should have left some trace of fighting and exercise.
4) The theory of the alien civilization
UFO experts made on the spot investigation and analysis. They raised the theory of civilization left by the alien. It is to some extent convincing, but still there are many questionable points as follows.
First: How many aliens and equipment are needed to fulfill such a huge project? Could so many aliens land on the earth?
Second: on the whole, the digging of the grottoes was very regular, the chiseling marks were standard and sophisticated, aliens must have used sophisticated equipment to operate. But under careful observations, the chiseling marks also displayed fine differences. We would say that this was done by skilled craftsman rather than done by powerful equipment.
Third: what was the purpose of the aliens digging these grottoes. If they dug these grottoes to live in, it was better and more economic to build an earth observation station with their materials. If the dug these grottoes for gleaning the elements from earth, why did they do such a delicate and careful work? If they dug these as presents to earth, to dig so many grottoes is no better than to dig only one or two grottoes and put one or two civilized products from the other space, which could carry more meaning.
III. Preliminary points of view of author.
According to the careful on the spot observations in the grottoes and comprehensive analysis from all materials by myself. I think it was too early to come to any conclusion with the currently collected information. The accurate answers need complete unearthing and more comprehensive observations. But some points are certain:
1) The grottoes were not formed naturally.
The area in the middle of Zhejiang is hilly land. According to the quotation from the classics, about 300 to 250 million years before. In the geologic age, this area was an ocean. Times brought about great changes of the world. Great orogeny came about in the earths crust in this region. The earths crust raised and became bulged and formed many folds and crease. This region became an area with many caves, such as the double-dragon cave, ice-pot cave and Chaozhen cave in Jinhau City, and also the underground cave in Lanxi City. All these caves were obviously different from the Longyou Grottoes.
2) The grottoes were not built by modern technology:
The development of the production power has offered more and more advanced underground digging machines to humans. It makes the underground operation safer and more efficient, such as the digging of coal and the excavation for underground transportation, etc. But the modern human starts from the safe, economic and beautiful points of view. Underground digging was in a straight line. Once it takes shapes, it would be reinforced and begins to make it beautiful instead of decorating original-digging models directly. In addition, if it was a product of the modern technology, it should be a project built after the industrial revolution in 18 century. Such a huge project, if I was built after 18 century, must have left detailed records in history.
3) The ancients did not build the grottoes:
Huge projects and backward production methods form striking contrasts. It was not possibly built by an individual or common person. Only the emperor and the leaders could have organized such a huge project and the digging capacity. Like the construction of the Great Wall, which was built to defend against invasion from the outside. It was really unnecessary to spend so much manpower and so much time to dig these grottoes without any purpose. Therefore, the Longyou grottoes were not the product of the poor and backward ancients out of leisure and for enjoyment.
While the Longyou Grottoes shows simplicity and magnificence, it also is an immeasurable mystery to the world. Longyou Grottoes could compare with the Pyramids in Egypt, and also could match the mysteriousness of the UFO. It deserves the efforts of all the men of insight to investigate and to disclose this worldly mystery close to us.