Leshan Giant Buddha, the biggest stone Buddha statue in the world at 233 feet (71 m) high. It is carved into a cliff face made of red sandstone in Leshan, Sichuan province, China. The Buddha is situated at the confluence of the Min, Qingyi, and Dadu rivers, where numerous shipping accidents had occurred. In 713, a monk named Hai Tong decided to carve a Maitreya Buddha statue to watch over the river, a project that took 90 years, until 803, to fully complete. The resulting Buddha was immense: Its fingers are 27 feet (8.3 m) long and the shoulders are