Northwest corner

Kailasanatha Temple, Ellora

This view is taken from a point on the upper level above the Shrine of the River Goddesses (earlier page). Below, the elephant in front of the shrine. Photo right foreground, one of two monolithic columns that flank the Nandi pavilion in front of the temple. The temple recedes towards the cliff face (east) in the background.

It is worth restating that the entire complex was built from the top down, by laboriously cutting out and removing sheer solid rock - a quarter of a million tons of it, according to one guidebook's estimate - to create the buildings, elephants, columns, etc. that one sees here. The people in the photo give some sense of the scale and magnitude of this magnificent effort, which took over 100 years to complete.