Ellora

15 years ago I travelled through India for almost 3 months. I saw lots of famous sights, and many many more not so famous sights and attractions. Out of all the places in those 3 months I remebered most the caves in Ellora and Ajanta as well as the nearby Daulatabad fort. So we planned a trip to show Eelco and my Dad those spectacular sights. I dubbed about going for a long time as May in India is hot - very hot, and the caves are in the middle of nowhere, so we would need a flight + a 4 hr drive + 45Min drive to one set of caves and another 2 hrs(!) to the others. Also there are 34 Caves to see in Ellora and another 26 in Ajanta. With 3 small kids in tow a little crazy? We had a super duper fabulous trip!

So, first the caves in Ellora.

 The 34 Caves here are all temples, andviharas and math's and have been built between the 5th and 10th century. Well not really built - they where cut out of the rocky hill - piece by piece! There are 12 Buddhist caves, 17 Hindu caves and 5 Jain caves.

The most famous cave, #16, is massive and it really is incomprehensible that the whole thing is carved out!

 Although local villages have lived in the caves for centuries, there are still pieces of the exquisite paintings intact.

 Of course for the other visitors we where as much as an attraction as the caves

 And climbing in and on almost anything was ok. Playing with torches made the visit also great for Rick & Kaat.

 Duuk did not sleep much - he just looked and looked and looked

 Here one of the monastery caves - not looking so spectacular from the outside - but don't be fooled

 The long corridors

 Hide some amazing cells and offer some nice shade

 And hide rows and rows of ornate statues inside

 Rick is checking whether the arm & leg pirates also have been here - there were quite a few statues with missing body parts -;)

Another not so finished one shows how deep some of the caves run into the rock face:

One of the Buddhist caves:

 Another outward elaborate cave

 Trailing up the path to the Jain caves with our kids the super-troopers!

 But so worth it!

And then a quick snack pause in the back of the car before the last cave of the day:

The best play cave of the day! With lots of statues with swords also.

 After 34 caves, well ok, we may have skipped a few, we were pretty sweaty & dirty. But still happy!