Ellora caves

Ellora is a village in the Indian state Maharashtra approximately 30 km northwestern of Aurangabad . Ellora is well known for its caves temples and rock temples, monasteries and chapels that were made into a 2 km long rock between 5 th and 10 th century A.D. as a part of the Deccan architecture. The UNESCO included in 1983 altogether 34 monumental caves of Ellora in the list of the world culture heritage.

The buildings are numbered from south east to north west and divide themselves into a Buddhist group (no. 1-12, 400-800 A.D.), a Hindu group (no. 13-29, 600-900 A.D.) and a Jain group (no. 30-34, 800-1000 A.D.). Most of the buildings distinguish themselves through rich sculptures.

Cave 1: A simple Buddhist monastery (Vihara) or also granary.

Cave 5: The largest Vihara (monastic halls of residence) of the Buddhist group with altogether 20 cells.

Cave 6: A large Vihara (monastic halls of residence) with sculptures of the Vajrayana Pantheons in the lobby.

Cave 10: A Chaitya out of the 8th century A.D. with open court and three entrances. The façade, chiseled out of the rock, is two storeyed.

Cave No. 12, Facade 12: A three storeyed Vihara with simple but impressing three storeyed facades. In the internal side, abundant sculptures are found.

Cave 14: The so-called Ravanas cave shows Ravana shaking the holy mountain Kailash.

Cave 16: Kailash Monolith16. The quadratic Hindu temple with a side length of 46 meters is the most impressive temple in Ellora. Simultaneously it counts as the largest rock temple of India . It possess in contrast to the other monuments in Ellora not only a facade but also standing free all around and richly decorated. For that must had been 150000 tones to 200000 tones of rock removed.