Ajanta and Allora

The temples of Angkor may have met their equal.

Within a hundred or so kilmeters of the rather uninteresting town of Aurangabad lies the cave temlpes of Ajanta and Ellora. And they have to be seen to be believed. Like those at Badami, the caves were carved straight into the rock. But here the stone carvers had reached the zenith of their powers - one temple, known as Kalidasha, is staggering both in size and undertaking. It is an entire free standing temple carved out of the mountian and it's the size of a large cathedral. The workers simply started chiseling away at the top of the rock, and worked their way down. No need for scaffolding. There must have been few work-related accidents since there was simply no place to fall.

Unfortunately, I'm too tired to write much today ...

But I spent six hours roaming the cave temples at Allora, and another day exploring those in Ajanta. I took a guide for both tours, but was so fatigues that it would have been a much smarter idea to have stretched the visits over a greater period of time. Too late now.

The temples are of all sizes, some with light decoration, others with a profusion of ornamentation. And three major faiths are represented here - Hindu, Buddhist and Jain. A World Heritage site, I recommend a visit if you happen to come this way.