A two and a half hour drive from the airport in Aurangabad to the middle of, well, nowhere, then a short climb up a hill (unless you rent a chair and four porters). As you crest the top they spread out before you, along the curving cliff side. The 29 caves of Ajanta. Dating as far back as 200 BC with the most recent from around 650 AD these caves were dug by hand out of the volcanic rock. Chipped away from front to back and top to bottom, they are stunning to explore. All of these caves were carved out for a Buddhist community and consist of five temples with the remaining caves serving as monasteries. They are full of pillars and carvings, decorations carefully planned and left in the rock. In the back of most caves sits a small room dedicated to a large statue of Buddha. A few contain ceiling high stupas (basically a Buddhist reliquary). Others were covered in paintings depicting the life of Buddha. Towards the middle you get to some with ornate two story facades, covered by carvings of Buddha in various forms. At the far end one uses half of a wall for a reclining Buddha. I continually found myself staring along the cliff side, looking at how many more caves remained, shaking my head to think that before talking to people in my office I hadn't even known these existed. How have they escaped the attention of the world for the most part?
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