When is the best time to travel in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes?

The best travel time of Mogao Grottoes: May to 10 is the best travel season every year.

Dunhuang goes deep inland, is blocked by high mountains, and is far away from the humid ocean airflow. It has an extremely dry continental climate, with an annual average temperature of 9.3℃, an average temperature of 24.7℃ in July and an average temperature of 9.3℃ in 1 month. It is dry and rainy all year round, and the temperature difference between day and night is large.

The Mogao Grottoes are located in Daquan Valley, 25km southeast of Dunhuang City, with a length of about1600m from north to south. Rows of overlapping caves are like beehives embedded in the broken coast split by knives and axes. In front of the cave, the plank road twists and turns, pavilions stand tall, iron horses hang in the wind and are magnificent.

The Mogao Grottoes were built in the second year of Jianyuan before Qin Dynasty (AD 366). After sixteen countries, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Five Dynasties, Song Dynasty and Xixia Dynasty, the construction was terminated in Yuan Dynasty. There are more than 1000 caves built in the era of Wu Zetian in the Tang Dynasty. So it is commonly known as Thousand Buddha Cave.

Despite thousands of years of natural and man-made destruction, the Mogao Grottoes have preserved 492 caves, with more than 45,000 square meters of murals and more than 2,400 colored sculptures. It is the largest and best-preserved treasure house of Buddhist art in the world and a national key cultural relic protection unit. UNESCO listed it as a world cultural heritage protection project.

Dunhuang art is profound and magnificent. Mogao Grottoes is a three-dimensional art treasure house integrating architecture, sculpture and murals, with extremely rich contents.