THE AJANTA CAVES
These rock-cut caves will blow your mind! Just imagine carving a huge temple, with ornamental walls and ceilings, large animals, pillars, statues of people, and altars out of the side of a mountain. What planning and what skill that took, and all with simple chisels and hammers.
In February 2011, my Swedish friend, Gullvi Eriksson, and I were staying near the caves and joined a professor, Dr. Walter Spink, at dinner. We soon discovered the he is the leading expert on these caves, having studied them since 1956. He told us that the amazing complex was completed in the short period from 460 to 480 AD. The rooms are cut into the side of a cliff on the south side of a U-shaped gorge on the Waghur River, and originally reached by individual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 30-110 ft. below. Now there is a pathway and we spent the next couple of days roaming around this magnificent feat of artistic excellent and human creativity. We visited thirty caves.
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