The Ellora Cave Temples, 30 Km outside of Aurangabad, built between the 5th and 10th centuries
The 34 caves are actually carved by hand out of the rock face, and include Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples and monasteries
The Buddhist temples are the oldest, created between the 5th and 7th centuries
Temple columns
Temple nitch
Buddha facade
Cleaning the outside of the Buddhist Vishwakarma Cave, also called the 'Carpenter's Cave'
Inside the Vishwakarma Cave, the rock has been cut to resemble the wooden beams of a cathedral
And Buddha sits, at 5m tall, in a teaching pose
This is one of the Buddhist monasteries - keep in mind, this is carved out of mountain! It's very impressive, although not ornately carved
Indian tourists love to take pictures with Westerners - we were good sports!
Anissa with a family of Indian tourists
With yet another family. Once, I even got to pose with someone's baby... Don't get any ideas, mom!
Langur Monkey at the Ellora Caves
Langur Monkeys on motorcycles at the Ellora Caves
Pulling mom's tail
Langur monkey's taking a break - there is also another type at the top of the photo
Sacred cow in one of the Hindu Temples; the Hindu temples were carved in the 7th century
Hindu god
This is the Kailasa Temple, the gem of the Ellora Caves. It was carved to represent Mt. Kailash in Tibet, which is the abode of Shiva, and took over 100 years to complete
The temple complex is carved out of one single rock and is the largest monolithic structure in the world at twice the size of the Parthenon in Athens!
Carved elephants at the base of the temple are meant to look like they are supporting the structure
Some of the structures are 3 stories high
The Central Temple
This is Esther and Martin, a young couple from Canada that we hung out with for the day (actually, he is 83! I can only hope to be that active at that age)
Our taxi in front of the five Jain Caves
The Jain Caves are smaller than the others, but are very detailed
Jain Cave Temple
Column
Column details
Deity seated on an elephant under a flowering tree
Elephant detail
Lotus flowers adorn the ceiling of this temple
Column detail
Jain deities
Beautiful column
You can still see some of the original paint on this lotus ceiling tile
