Abstract: In 1992, four local peasants found large-scale ancient man-made shallow rock caverns in Longyou, Zhejiang. This finding attracted the attention of many specialists from different fields: archeologists, engineering geologists and rock mechanics specialists among others. Since the opening of the site to the public in 1992 many damages have occurred including collapse of the roof and partition wall, shear or tension failures of pillars and weathering resulted from the frequent drying and wetting cycle. In order to protect such historic marvel, the authors evaluate engineering geological and hydrogeological conditions of 5 caverns to develop guidelines for design of protective measures.