Gaxian Cave 嘎仙洞

About Gaxian Cave

Gaxian Cave (嘎仙洞) is a large cave in the forests of the northern Greater Khingan range (大兴安岭), northwest of Alihe (阿里河镇) in the Oroqen Autonomous Banner (鄂伦春自治旗), Inner Mongolia. A Northern Wei (北魏) inscription of 443 inside it marks the site that the dynasty's rulers honoured as the ancestral home of the Tuoba (拓跋) Xianbei.

The mouth of the cave is set in a granite cliff face 25 m up from the ground and looks southwest. Inside, the chamber stretches 92 m north–south and 27 m east–west, an area of nearly 3,000 m², with a roof that reaches more than 20 m at its highest and smaller caves opening off it.

In 443, the fourth year of the Taiping Zhenjun (太平真君) reign, Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, Tuoba Tao (拓跋焘), declared this cave the place where the Tuoba clan began and sent the official Li Chang (李敞) to hold a sacrifice. The prayer text Li Chang left, 201 characters in clerical script (隶书), is carved on the west wall, and its wording agrees with the account in the Book of Wei (魏书). On 30 July 1980 the archaeologist Mi Wenping (米文平) and colleagues found the inscription; together with pottery sherds and a few stone and bone objects from the cave, it identified Gaxian Cave as the stone chamber of the Xianbei named in the histories. Historians still debate whether it really was the Tuoba homeland, since the clan's recorded history goes back some thirty generations before Tuoba Tao. On 23 June 2007 remains of grottoes were found on the cave roof.

The State Council listed the site in 1988 among the key cultural sites under national protection (全国重点文物保护单位), classed as a Northern Wei ancient site. It is now one of the main sights of Tuoba Tao Forest Park (拓跋焘森林公园).

What to look for

• The 201-character Northern Wei prayer inscription of 443 in clerical script on the west wall
• The cave mouth, 25 m up a granite cliff and facing southwest
• The main chamber, 92 m long and 27 m wide, with a roof more than 20 m high and smaller side caves
• The surrounding forest of Tuoba Tao Forest Park in the northern Greater Khingan

Location & getting there

Getting to Gaxian Cave

• Search for 嘎仙洞 with 呼伦贝尔市 and 鄂伦春自治旗.