Guyaju Caves - General Megacave for June 4th, 2022

Guyaju Caves (古崖居), also known as the Yanqing Ancient Cliff House, is a rock-cut complex of honeycomb caves carved into the slopes of the Tianhuang Mountain, near the village of Dongmenying in the Yanging District of China.

Local legend has it that the caves were built in the body of a dragon, and that a curious rock on one of the paths is a meteorite fallen from the sky. In the 1960s some of the caves at the foot of the valley were used to store weapons and ammunition. In 1976 the caves were damaged by an earthquake. As a result, some of outer rooms are visible in cross-section. [I assume this means what we can see now was once mostly enclosed?]

The site was first surveyed in 1984 by the Yanqing County Cultural Relics Management Office. [Some sources credit the surveryors for its 'discovery', which is contradicted by references to use in 1960s, unless the full scale of the site was previously unknown?]

In 1991, the Guyaju Caves officially started to receive visitors.

In 2013, the Guyaju Caves were registered as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, which administers cultural relics on behalf of the State Council of China. This designation is the highest level of cultural heritage protection registered in China.

Features

Guyaju is situated in the northern margin of the Yanqing-Fanshan Basin, a geological region comprising of 110-million-year-old granite that formed when magma intruded upwards through large amounts of diabase rock.

The site builders took advantage of exposed granite features to construct a complex network of 350 chambers cut into the rock face across a system of 117 caves. The chambers are mainly 1.8 metres in height and laid out in a rectangular or square plan that vary from single room dwellings to larger multi-room homesteads over multiple levels.

Many dwellings contain rock-cut furnishings: beds, lamp stands, storage compartments, stone tables, a stove and flue, and a kang – a simple domestic heating system commonly found across China. Chambers were interlinked with a network of vertical and horizontal passages, connecting the upper residential areas to the lower levels used to hold livestock and for stabling horses.

The largest and most complicated complex at Guyaju is called the Guantangzi (“Golden Temple”), a collection of 8 chambers divided over two floors. At the entrance is two ornately carved pillars that leads into a chamber used for communal gatherings or religious ceremonies.

History

Uncertainty persists about the builders of the Guyaju complex, its use, and when it fell into disuse.

There is no clear historical record of the group that built and used the site. Archaeologists have been unable to recover any surviving organic materials for reliable dating, nor are there any frescos or carvings in the cave system.

Some scholars suggest that the site was founded by the Kumo Xi, also called the Tatabi, a Mongolic steppe people that lived in the area from the Tang dynasty (618-907CE) to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907-979CE).

In this explanation, the site's association with outlaw rebels and banditry resulted in its eventual seige by armies of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty (916-1125CE), killing all of the inhabitants (said to be 1000 people).

The Kumo Xi did engage in several conflicts with Chinese dynasties and Khitan tribes, resulting in a series of disastrous defeats and the eventual collapse of Kumo Xi territory.

Other theories suggest that the complex may have served as a granary or a garrison for soldiers during the Tang dynasty period, or that it may even have been constructed in the earlier Han dynasty period (202BCE-220CE).

Sources

spoiler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyaju_Caves

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2022/05/the-guyaju-caves/143481

https://www.beijinghikers.com/hike-in-beijing/view/445/longqingxia-ice-festival-and-tang-dynasty-caves/

Announcements & Information

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
❤️ Come listen to music with your fellow Hexbears in Cy.tube
💖 Come talk in the New weekly queer thread!
🧡 Monthly Neurodiverse Megathread
💛 Read about a current topic in the news
⭐️ May Movie Schedule ⭐️

Reminders:
💚 You can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments and discussions over upbears
💜 Sorting by new makes your comrades happy
🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can go here

‏‏‎ ‎
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):