ellora caves (india) - 29 photos

Photos of some of the rock-cut temples and monasteries called "Ellora Caves".

The 34 "caves" – actually structures excavated out of the vertical face of a hill – are Buddhist, Hindu and Jain cave temples and monasteries and were built between the 5th century and 10th century.

The most impressive is Kailash Temple, a huge monolithic temple carved out of the mountain, and made of a single block of stone. It was built in the 8th century. It is estimated that about 200,000 tons of rocks was scooped out over hundreds of years to carve this monolithic structure. This is one of the largest monolithic structure in the world.

For more information on these monuments, read the Wikipedia Articles:

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellora_Caves

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kailash_Temple