Ellora Cave Temples

About 30 km from Aurangabad, India are the Ellora Cave Temples, a series of religious temples cut out of the solid rock of the hillside during the 5th to 10th centuries. These are truly spectacular to see, especially knowing that each temple is hewn from a single piece of rock, even the columns that appear to be supporting the structures! There are 34 caves in total, and include Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples and monasteries. The Anjanta Caves nearby are just as impressive, especially with their beautiful paintings that remain to this day, but unfortunately we did not have time to see them on this trip.

Langur Monkeys goof around on motorcycles in front of one of the Buddhist temples. The Buddhist temples are the oldest, created between the 5th and 7th centuries.

Buddha sits in the middle of other carved figures.

The Hindu temples were carved around the 7th century. This is the Kailasa Temple, which is the largest monolithic structure in the world and took over 100 years to complete. It was carved to represent Mt. Kailash in Tibet, which is the home of the god Shiva.

The Jain temples are smaller than the Buddhist and Hindu temples, but are so beautiful with their intricate carvings.

To see more pictures from Ellora, please visit the following link:

Ellora Cave Temples