Mysterious caves uncovered

48 ancient caves were found grouped together at a 3,000 square meter hilltop in Zhongxian county, Southwest China's Chongqing municipality, news.xinhuanet.com reported.

The caves are largely separate rooms, averaging 1.5 meters in height and one meter in width, varying from eight to 30 square meters. Some of them contain facilities that look like basins and stoves, and wall carvings of tigers and lions.

Archaeologists said the structures are mysterious in that no literature reported local people ever lived in caves. Their construction time and uses are not yet known, but some archaeologists proposed that they may date back to Han Dynasty (206 BC-220AD) or Tang Dynasty (618—907 AD).