ellora caves: aurangabad

so husband and i took off for a short holiday last weekend (his friday was off for makar sakranti) and we went to aurangabad!!!! yayayayya!! i had been wanting to see the ajanta and ellora caves for a long time now and now i have....the trip was absolutely awesome and i have come back over awed by the beauty of our country...i now feel there is so much more to to see and learn here in india before i go out and see more of the world...(i do want to do that too....in its own time i guess)

this was also our 1 year wedding anniversary holiday!!! yes we complete one year of being married this 20th!!!

so here are some pics of the caves (i say some since i have far too many to upload here) and i am showing them in order of our visit...so ellor first and then ajanta will follow tomorrow!

ladies and gentlemen i present to you...the spectacular ellora caves:

via wikipedia:  Ellora (Marathi: वेरूळ) is an archaeological site, 30 km (19 mi) from the city of Aurangabad in the Indian state of Maharashtra built by theRashtrakuta (Kannada: ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರಕೂಟ) rulers. Well-known for its monumental caves, Ellora is a World Heritage Site.^[1] Ellora represents the epitome of Indian rock-cut architecture. The 34 "caves" – actually structures excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills – being Buddhist, Hindu and Jain rock cut temples and monasteries, were built between the 5th century and 10th century. The 12 Buddhist (caves 1–12), 17 Hindu (caves 13–29) and 5 Jain (caves 30–34) caves, built in proximity, demonstrate the religious harmony prevalent during this period of Indian history.

 please excuse the quality of pictures...using flash is banned inside the caves and i have a very unsteady hand (not that i use flash but i prefer to keep it in the auto mode for it is more steady in a digi cam)

 shiv=ling

 godess lakshmi sitting on a lotus

the ellora caves are divided into brahminism, jainism and buddhism and you find cave temples for all three  religions...i could go on showing you the pictures...but i think that will bore all of you...so if you are planning a trip and need some more info...feel free to write to me at bahl.kanika@gmail.com and i will be happy to help!

i will be back tomorrow with bad pictures of bibi ka makbara, ajanta caves and some good ones of taj hotel where we stayed :D

have a good day ya'll!