The more than 24 enormous grottos discovered in Longyou County in east China's Zhejiang Province have drawn wide attention from the archeological, architectural and cultural circles in China.

The rock caves, each with an area of at least 1,000 sq m, are engraved with horses, birds, fish and other patterns.

Yang Hongxun, an archeologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this is the largest number of grottos ever discovered in the country.

However, opinions vary among experts as to by whom, when, how and why the grottos were made.

Dong Chuping, a research fellow of the Zhejiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences who has just visited the grottos, said that they constituted an armament base in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C.-476 B.C.).

Others thought they might be imperial mausoleums, storehouses, residences or just quarries.

What is unanimous is that all experts who visited the grottos believe that they are of great value and should be well protected.