The site

The Ajanta Caves are 30 Buddhist monasteries and worship halls carved straight into a 75-metre wall of rock in Maharashtra, India, cut in two phases between the second century BCE and roughly 480 CE. Universally regarded as masterpieces of Buddhist art, their walls carry expressive paintings and rock-cut sculptures depicting the past lives of the Buddha. Textual records suggest monks used the caves as a monsoon retreat, while merchants and pilgrims rested here.

Field notes

civilizations

Ancient India (Gupta)

types

Temple

built

200 BCE

occupied

200 BCE — 650 CE

country

India