Ancient Cliff House

Ancient Cliff House is located in the valley to the northwest of Yanqing County. It is now the largest cliff residence site found in North China.

The ancient cliff houses were digged by some unknown ancestors on steep cliffs. There are altogether 147 stone rooms, divided into front, middle and rear parts, hanging on the cliffs of about 100,000 square meters. The stones rooms have various shapes and positions. In the shape of square or rectangle, some big rooms are about 20 square meters, while some small ones are about three to four square meters. Some have single rooms, while some have two or three rooms; the flats have parallel rooms or rooms in two layers. All stone rooms are distributed in different layers, with stone steps, stone stairs and plank roads connecting each other. There are complete sets of life facilities including doors, windows, Kang (heatable adobe bed), kitchen ranges, mangers, closets, flues, and storage rooms. The windows are usually two to three square chi (one third of a meter). The doors are in different sizes. The four corners of windows and doors all have symmetrical holes of axis. Sinks are cut in the front eaves, maybe for the purpose of fetching water. These stone rooms have different functions. Some are bedrooms, some look like kitchen, and some seem to be used for raising horses. There are two kinds of stone kang. One is directly dug on the granite, without smoke chimney under it; another is curved, with stone slate or adobes on it. There are kitchen ranges dug on one side of the stone kang, with twisted smoke chimneys leading to the outside of the stone rooms. One stone house is a typical “three-room” apartment. One big room with door looks like the parlor; the room on the right side is the kitchen, with stone kitchen range and smoke channel; the room on the left side has a closet. “Guantangzi” is typical of all the stone rooms, which is in the middle of the mountain range, like a palace in ancient times. It is not only high and spacious and has a good daylighting, but also has delicate carvings. There are four stone pillars supporting the roof of the cave. In the middle of the four pillars, there is a wide Buddha niche, with two small bedrooms dug on both sides. The stone rooms here are complicated in structure and delicate in design. There is no accurate record about its age, history, background and usage, so it is still a myth.

Publishes at : 07-09-23 20:51

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