Ajanta Caves

The Ajanta Caves, with its 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating back to the 2nd century BC, is a wonder of human art. Tucked away in the remote mountains of Maharashtra, India, these caves were accidentally discovered in 1819 by a British officer on a tiger hunt. For centuries prior, they had remained abandoned and overgrown, masterpieces of ancient rock-cut architecture lost to time. The caves were painstakingly carved out of a curving rock face stretching nearly 600 feet. What lies inside astounds with detailed sculptures and paintings that have survived for over 2,000 years, depicting scenes from the life of Buddha and ornate Buddhist symbolism and mythology.

Imagine stumbling upon the Ajanta Caves in their heyday and realizing the incredible feat of manpower and devotion required to construct them. The air inside would have been thick with the smell of incense as monks meditated in the candlelit caves, with their chanting sounds echoing through the chambers carved into the solid rock. Elaborately painted murals covering nearly every surface would have glowed in the dim light, their vivid colors depicting legendary creatures and scenes from Buddhist texts. It is an escape from the harsh reality of the outside world and the dangers that the Silk Roads poised. Simply admiring their devotion to construct these all those years ago makes one realize how important religion played along the ancient routes.