Ellora Caves - Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India

The Ellora Caves consists of 34 Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temple caverns cut out from the basaltic (very hard volcanic stone) Charanandri hills with incredible precision and detail. The most remarkable of the cave temples is Kailasa complex (cave 16), and is dedicated to the Hindu god, lord Shiva.

Unlike other temples at the site, which were first delved horizontally into the rock face, the Kailasa complex was excavated vertically from the top down, through solid basalt stone. The sructure is literally a freestanding, multi-story complex carved out of one single rock, and covers an area double the size of Parthenon in Athens. It also features a massive 100 foot tall monolithic pillar which is completely carved out and connected to the base of the structure, which leaves many baffled about how this could have been accomplished. This is the only temple in the whole world where an entire mountain was cut out vertically from the top down to create a monolithic structure.Unlike other temples at the site, which were first delved horizontally into the rock face, the Kailasa complex was excavated vertically from the top down, through solid basalt stone. The sructure is literally a freestanding, multi-story complex carved out of one single rock, and covers an area double the size of Parthenon in Athens. It also features a massive 100 foot tall monolithic pillar which is completely carved out and connected to the base of the structure, which leaves many baffled about how this could have been accomplished. This is the only temple in the whole world where an entire mountain was cut out vertically from the top down to create a monolithic structure.

(Source : Facebook post)