The Ajanta Caves are 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. Ajanta Caves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, the caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive paintings that present emotions through gesture, pose and form.
The Ajanta Caves
Cave 19, Ajanta 5th-century chaitya hall.
Panoramic view of Ajanta Caves from the nearby hill
Cave 9, a first-period Hinayana-style chaitya worship hall with stupa but no idols
Rock-cut architecture is the creation of structures, buildings, and sculptures by excavating solid rock where it naturally occurs. Intensely laborious when using ancient tools and methods, rock-cut architecture was presumably combined with quarrying the rock for use elsewhere. In India and China, the terms cave and cavern are often applied to this form of man-made architecture, but caves and caverns that began in natural form are not considered to be rock-cut architecture even if extensively modified. Although rock-cut structures differ from traditionally built structures in many ways, many rock-cut structures are made to replicate the facade or interior of traditional architectural forms. Interiors were usually carved out by starting at the roof of the planned space and then working downward. This technique prevents stones falling on workers below. The three main uses of rock-cut architecture were temples, tombs, and cave dwellings.
The Great Temple of Abu Simbel (ca. 1280 BCE), one of the earliest known examples of rock-cut architecture.
The Kailasa temple, part of the Ellora Caves
The 57-foot (17 m) tall monolithic Gommateshwara statue, built in 981 CE
The Midas Monument, a Phrygian rock-cut tomb dedicated to Midas (700 BCE).