A craftsman chisels out Chinese characters as part of an inscription to inaugurate an underwater museum at the Three Gorges Reservoir, the world's largest water conservancy project, on March 24.

Construction of the underwater museum at Baiheliang, a natural rock ridge located along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, is near completion. The ridge, a 1,600 meter by 16 meter stone girder, carries inscriptions of more than 30,000 characters of poems and records of the Yangtze River's water level changes dating back 1,200 years.

The underwater museum, which is scheduled to open on May 18, is built to house the ancient hydro-inscriptions. Relics experts also use steel tubes to support the rock body and waterproof coatings to increase the durability to better preserve the carvings.