07 December 2009

Cave Temples . . . Like busses!

After spending yesterday at the Ajanta Caves today we headed for the cave at Ellora, a collection of 29 Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples cut into a 2km long section of cliff.


The caves were built during the 7th to 11th century and are home to the Kailasa Temple reputedly the worlds largest monolithic structure.

It is estimated that 7000 workers took more than 150 years to cut the temple from the cliff cafe and carve out the interior. This resulted in the excavation of a quarter of a million tonnes of rock.

The guide books rave about Ellora but we didn't think that it was anywhere near as good as those we saw yesterday at Ajanta. However; we may have been a little bit "caved out" by the time we finished there. This guy appeared to be thoroughly enjoying it though (check out that cheeky hand!) . . .

Whilst we we at the caves we bumped into Leigh and Nicola who had our space on the African Trails overland truck when we left it in Zambia. We had a great evening, helped along by a few Kingfishers, chatting about our various escapades and comparing horror stories!

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