Our second day in Mumbai was saved for one place - Elephanta Caves. To go there, we had to take an hour-long boat ride from the Gateway.
Once we reached our destination, we had to walk up many many steps - was definitely a good workout. At the top, we had finally reached the temples, which are basically caverns with statues and rooms in the mountain. Our first stop was the Main Temple itself. I took plenty of pictures of the main carvings, and a few videos, but here is the main part of the main temple:
The detail in these statues and the carvings are simply amazing, considering how old the site is ( I believe they range from 6th-7th century AD). Even after the effects of aging, and destruction by the Portuguese (they used some of the statues for target practice). Of course, some restoration has been done to prevent collapse of the caves.
We spent most of the days climbing and exploring all of the caves - we arrived on one of the first boats in the morning, and left at around 5 in the afternoon. Some time was spent admiring some of the handicrafts available on the island - the most interesting, in my opinion, were these small elephant pieces carved out of stone. The detail on these are amazing. Some of them even have small elephants carved inside large elephants. Skilled artists take at least one day with each piece. I'll take a picture and post it later.
Finally, the day ended with a bit of shopping at Inorbit Mall in Navi Mumbai (new mumbai), and a 3 hour ride back to Pune.
All in all, a great visit :D My favorite part was probably Elephanta Caves - it would be difficult to explain how amazing this place is - it's one of those things you have to see with your own eyes. But hopefully the facebook pics will help :)
Once we reached our destination, we had to walk up many many steps - was definitely a good workout. At the top, we had finally reached the temples, which are basically caverns with statues and rooms in the mountain. Our first stop was the Main Temple itself. I took plenty of pictures of the main carvings, and a few videos, but here is the main part of the main temple:
The detail in these statues and the carvings are simply amazing, considering how old the site is ( I believe they range from 6th-7th century AD). Even after the effects of aging, and destruction by the Portuguese (they used some of the statues for target practice). Of course, some restoration has been done to prevent collapse of the caves.
We spent most of the days climbing and exploring all of the caves - we arrived on one of the first boats in the morning, and left at around 5 in the afternoon. Some time was spent admiring some of the handicrafts available on the island - the most interesting, in my opinion, were these small elephant pieces carved out of stone. The detail on these are amazing. Some of them even have small elephants carved inside large elephants. Skilled artists take at least one day with each piece. I'll take a picture and post it later.
Finally, the day ended with a bit of shopping at Inorbit Mall in Navi Mumbai (new mumbai), and a 3 hour ride back to Pune.
All in all, a great visit :D My favorite part was probably Elephanta Caves - it would be difficult to explain how amazing this place is - it's one of those things you have to see with your own eyes. But hopefully the facebook pics will help :)
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