With Mogao caves of Dunhuang in Gansu and Yungang caves of Datong, Shanxi they represent the astounding Buddhist cave art of the past. In 493-494 the Northern Wei rulers moved their capital from Datong to Luoyang. At Datong they had built the marvelous Yungang rock temples and now here initiated sculpturing of Longmen caves. It took more than two hundred years to carve some one hundred thousand images of Buddha and Buddhist monks. Longmen caverns are located on the banks of Yi River in the south of the city.
Historians believe that Chinese art particularly sculpture of the time had strong foreign influence.
According to them Buddhist sculptures as preserved in shrines of Longmen show diverse artistic strains. Some influences came directly from India but a very important artistic tradition was that of Central Asian Buddhism. The Buddhist demand for religious images gave rise to the greatest age of Chinese sculpture and then declined with Buddhism after the Tang Dynasty. The Longmen grottoes house their main sculptures in Binyang caves. On the western side of the Yi River they display the style of the Northern Wei to the onlooker.