Xi'an Forest of Stone Tablets was originally built in 1087. The Forest of Stone Steles in Xi'an holds a big collection of steles in China. It is a classical courtyard styled structure at the site of former Confucian Temple in Sanxue Street, Xian, close to the south gate of Xi'an City Wall.

The museum has an area of over 30,000 square meters. It is one of the centers of ancient Chinese stone-engraving classic. It is also the center of the works of art of noted calligraphers of past dynasties. The numerous standing steles likens a forest, hence the name " Forest of Steles"'. With a history of over 900 years, it is an art treasure well known at home and abroad.

Many steles are very important to historical research. One of the steles, which was carved during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), describes the spread of a branch of Christianity in Chinese and Syriac. Other steles describe the intercourse between Chinese and Nepal, Japan, India and so on. Some steles also record important historic events such as peasants' insurgences and the aggressions of western countries. What's more, many steles in the museum are important records of ancient literatures. The 'Kaicheng Stone Classics', which took seven years to carve, consist of 114 steles with twelve kinds of classics. Roughly 650,252 characters on the steles are considered to be the best preserved of their kind in China. Stone tablets written by famous calligraphers such as Ouyang Xun, Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan also can be found in the museum.

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 5,000 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.

The Popular Stele of Daqin Nestorianism, which stands out for the small cross at the top, engraved in AD 781 to mark the opening of a Nestorian church. The Nestorians, an early Christian set, who were differed from orthodox Christianity in their belief that Christ's human and divine natures were quite distinct.

In addition, a large amount of art treasures, such as the famous Six Legendary Horses as well as other stone carvings and inscriptions for religious use and for tombs of the Han and the Tang dynasties are also well preserved.