At the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Central China's Henan province, conservation workers armed with geological radar, infrared detectors and 3D modeling technology are racing against time to preserve a great Chinese cultural treasure.

The carvings at this UNESCO World Heritage Site began in the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) and continued during the Western Wei Dynasty (535-556) to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-960) period. The Longmen Grottoes is made up of more than 2,300 caves and niches and over 100,000 Buddhist statues. But after centuries of weathering, water seepage and microbial erosion, protecting the stone carvings has become an increasingly urgent task.