Ajanta Ellora Caves

This weekend was absolutely fantastic. If you ever get the chance to make the trek over to the Ajanta and Ellora caves, DO IT. Despite how old the caves are, the sculptures and monuments are still very well preserved and very, very well detailed.

A little history before I post my pictures: There are a total of 29 caves at Ajanta, dating back to the 2nd century BC. They are all influenced by Buddhism, and depict many variations of Buddha and his disciples. The caves also have fresco painting depicting different aspects of Buddha's life and path to enlightenment. Ellora, on the other hand, has 34 cavse/temples, and presents a mix of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain architecture. Construction began around 6th century AD, and continued until somewhere around 11th century AD.

Here are some pictures below:

Look at the sheer size of those sculptures! This entire Hindu temple was carved out of one single rock. (Ellora)

Taken at Ellora, in cave no. 1

Main Hindu temple, Ellora. Again this was all carved out of a single rock!

Ellora elephants

Outside one of the Buddhist caves at Ajanta

Inside cave 26, Ajanta. This is the area's best preserved cave.

giant sleeping Buddha!

me! :) It started monsooning while we were at Ajanta

the entrance to Ajanta

And of course, there were monkeys EVERYWHERE :)

this monkey was not very pleased... :o

Here are some other random pictures from the trip: 

These ladies were really nice :) They let me click a picture of them while we were driving with them through traffic. 

We also visited the Bibi-Ka-Maqbara (or...the poor man's Taj) It had a very similar layout to the Taj Mahal but was a little smaller. 

out whole group!