Kailash Temple (Cave 16)

India / Maharashtra / Khuldabad /
 temple, monument, sculpture, cave(s), ancient ruins
This is Cave No. 16 of the Ellora UNESCO Site.
This UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of the 34 monasteries and temples, extending over more than 2 km, that were dug side by side in the wall of a high basalt cliff in the complex located at Ellora, Maharashtra, India, and represents the epitome of Indian rock-cut architecture. It is designed to recall Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva. While it exhibits typical Dravidian features, it was carved out of one single rock. It was built in the 8th century by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I.

The Kailash Temple is notable for its vertical excavation - carvers started at the top of the original rock, and excavated downward, exhuming the temple out of the existing rock. It is estimated that about 200,000 tons of rocks was scooped out over hundreds of years to construct this monolithic structure.

The design of the temple was Inspired from the 7th Century Virupaksha Temple in another World Heritage Site at Hampi in Karnataka.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kailasa_Temple,_Ellora
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   20°1'25"N   75°10'45"E

Comments

  • I have been a frequent visitor to this place since 1995 to 2000. An amazing work of architecture, the inner temple or the Garbha Griha is mounted on elephants curved out of solid work.
  • Beautifully carved Temple. Indian Sculpture at its best. We should wonder how the survey of hill was done & site was chosen predicting it to be a monolith rock? Hadn't it been a monolith rock & a patch of loose soil would have been found there, all efforts of sculpturers would have been in vain. How could they predict it without any modern technology?
This article was last modified 8 months ago