The Forest of Stele is near the South Gate of Xi'an. It was originally built in 1090AD in the Northern Song Dynasty. It was officially named as the Forest of Stone Steles Museum in 1992. At the beginning it was used to store the valuable steles of Confucian classics carved in the Tang Dynasty. With the time passing by here collected over 2000 steles of different times from the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Now it boasts the largest collection of its kind in China.
The contents of the Forest Steles can be divided into four groups: works of literature and philosophy, historical records, calligraphy, and pictorial stones. The Popular Stele of Daqin Nestorianism, which can be recognizable by the small cross at the tip and engraved in 781AD, marks the opening of a Nestorian church. The Monk Bu Kong Stele in Tang Dynasty is noteworthy for its Buddhist value. Collections here are also of high value for exploring Chinese calligraphy history. Here stand the many tablets engraved with works of many outstanding calligraphers through ages. Chinese calligraphy boasts a long history in five basic script forms, namely: seal script, clerical script, regular script, running script and cursive script. Through more than 3,000 years of creative work various forms have constituted the abundant treasure and unique traditions of Chinese calligraphy. The typical includes the Cao Quan Stele, written in Han clerical script famous for its elegant, ingenious inscription; The Tang Dynasty witnessed the prosperous period with noted distinctive styles of regular script. The most distinguished Tang stele is "the Preface to the Holy Buddhist Scriptures" in the handwriting of Wang Xizhi, a famous Jin calligrapher. Some poems of calligraphy are also collected here. Some steles carved the portrait of Confucius with great historical Value.
The Forest of stele is the treasure house to study Chinese calligraphy and history.

Stele Forrest Museum	Stele Inscription

The Terra cotta Warriors and Horses	The Big Wild Goose Pagoda
Xi'an Old City Wall	The Bell Tower
Huaqing Hot Spring	Banpo Village Museum
Shanxi History Museum	Forest of Steles
The Great Mosque	Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum