All This Is That: World heritage site: India's Ellora Caves, Marathi, Maharashtra, India: The 34 Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain Carved Rock Caves At Ellora

By Jack Brummet, Travel Editor

Of the 962 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, I've been to 20 [1] so far. I plan on hitting many more, but it will take a while. So far, my favorite site has to be the caves at Ellora, in India.

Ellora is the site of monumental, rock cut, cave temples representing Buddhist, Hindu and Jain religions, built in close proximity to each other to show the religious harmony in the area. The structures are multi-level buildings, carved directly from caves within the mountain face, and include monasteries, shrines and places of worship. Many of the buildings have vaulted ceilings and are all intricately carved, with most of the shrines containing large carved deities. During construction, 200,000 tons of rock were removed from the site by generations of workers.

Some of the most interesting caves: the Buddhist shrine Vishvakarma, with a multi-storied entrance, a large hall with vaulted ceilings and a 15 foot tall carving of Buddha preaching; The Indra Sabha is a two level Jain cave with a monolithic shrine, like all of the Jain caves it once had richly painted ceilings, part of which are still visible. It also has carvings of lotus flowers, Yaksha Matanga on an elephant and Ambika sitting on a lion under a mango tree; Kailasanatha is the centerpiece of the Ellora complex, and resembles Mount Kailash, the home of lord Shiva. It has intricate carvings, including sacred bulls and life-sized elephants supporting the shrines.

Claire with a Buddha

Monkeys at Ellora

Like most of the best archaeological sites we've seen around the world, the Caves of Ellora are a World Heritage Site. Marathi: (वेरूळ) is an about 20 miles from Aurangabad in the Maharashtra state (which also contains Mumbai). I'm not sure how far this is away from Mumbai, but the flight here was only about 35 minutes on a 737 (so it is within a couple hundred miles).

[Note: The photos are not great--you are not allowed to use flash in the caves...and remember these are caves!]

These fantastically sculpted caves are a mind-bending example of "cut from rock" architecture. Everything you see is cut from stone. The caves and sculpture were cut out with chisels and other hand tools from the face of solid stone in the Charanandri hills. The 34 caves were successively built by Buddhist, Hindu and Jain groups.

These caves (not the sort of caves we think of in the west) were temples and monasteries, carved out many years from around the 5th to 10th centuries (A.D.). There are 12 Buddhist (caves 1–12), 17 Hindu (13–29) and 5 Jain (caves 30–34) caves, built in a row over six centuries. Some of the caves took 200 years to complete...

Amazingly, each succeeding set of caves builds on the tradition of the previous ones--probably not surprising when you think of the amazing stew of hundreds of religions and sects that still exist (and influence each other) here. You find Buddhas in the Hindu caves; there are Ganeshes in the Jain caves. Some of the caves have two, three, or four floors. Not only did they carve out the caves themselves, but they also carved elaborate sculptures, friezes and the like on many of the walls. They also carved out elaborately decorated and sculpted columns--some of which remind me of Roman and Greek columns.

Restoration workers on bamboo scaffolding. Not only is it bamboo, but it is fastened together with what is little better than very thick jute twine!

[1] World Heritage sites I've visited (as of August 2012):

Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang (China)

Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing (China)

Acropolis, Athens (Greece)

Medieval City of Rhodes (Greece)

Old Town of Corfu (Greece)

Ellora Caves (India)

Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura (Italy/Vatican City)

Historic Centre of Florence (Italy)

Piazza del Duomo, Pisa (Italy)

Historic Centre of Siena (Italy)

Medina of Tétouan (formerly known as Titawin) Morocco

Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada (Spain)

Historic City of Toledo (Spain)

Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia (Turkey)

Historic Areas of Istanbul (Turkey)

Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church (England)

Tower of London (England)

Yellowstone National Park (USA)

Everglades National Park (USA)