A cave in the renowned Yungang Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Datong City of north China's Shanxi Province, officially reopened to the public on Monday after 21 months of conservation work.
Cave No.10 was closed back in February 2023 to undergo routine maintenance while restoration experts carried out extensive surveys to assess its condition.
"We first conducted a systematic condition survey of Cave No.10 and found 806 areas of damage within the 886 square meters of the cave. We created independent records for these damage sites and developed corresponding maintenance plans. Through three months of maintenance and repair, along with nearly six months of outcome tracking, we ultimately achieved effective protection," said Sun Bo, restorer at the Cultural Heritage Protection and Monitoring Center of Yungang Research Institute.
The Yungang Grottoes, which boasts 45 major caves and more than 59,000 statues, were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List back in 2001.
According to the annual work plan, the digitized transformation of the Yungang Grottoes is still ongoing, where efforts are being made to utilize 3D scanning technologies to create digital models of the caves and their important relics.
To ensure the safety of visitors and cultural relics and to maintain the quality and condition, the site's Cave No.12 has now been temporarily closed for a month-long digital acquisition project, and it will reopen after the work is completed.
"We used 3D laser scanning and close-range photogrammetric techniques to obtain a high-precision geometric model and high-resolution texture data of the entire Cave No.12. In the later stage, [we] will employ 3D reconstruction software to create a 3D model of the cave, ultimately obtaining a colored 3D model of the cave," said Pan Peng, another restorer.
Cave in ancient Buddhist grottoes reopens to public after maintenance work
