The Leshan Giant Buddha is carved out of a cliff face in the southern part of Sichuan province in China, near the city of Leshan.
Construction was started in 713 AD, led by a Chinese monk named Haitong and it was completed ninety years later. The statue is 71 metres (233 feet) tall and depicts a seated Maitreya Buddha with his hands resting on his knees. His shoulders are twenty-eight metres wide and his smallest toenail is large enough to easily accommodate a seated person.
