More than 240,000 cultural relics unearthed in China

New Delhi, Nov 29 (ANI): Archaeologists have unearthed more than 240,000 cultural relics near the Three Gorges Reservoir in China.

The Three Gorges Reservoir is on the upper middle-reaches of the Yangtze, China's longest river.

Since 1992, archaeologists have excavated 1,087 archaeological sites scattered across 22 cities and counties in the region, with some 723 of the sites underground.

The artifacts uncovered include prehistoric cultural relics dating back more than 2 million years to the Old Stone Age. Relics from the Xia (21st Century BC to 16th Century BC) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties have also been recovered, reports English.news.cn.

At one point, there were more than 1,000 experts at the site, equivalent to about two-thirds of the staff of all of China's archaeological research institutes.

Tong Mingkang, vice director with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee had already initiated an overall plan to protect the cultural relics in the region.

The repair of the valuable relics will begin shortly, he added. (ANI)