India Revealed · The Caves of Ajanta, Ellora, and Elephanta, Mumbai (Travel Guide)

Travel guidebooks for the ultra curious, Approach Guides reveal a destination’s essence by exploring a compelling aspect of its cultural heritage: art, architecture, history, food, or wine.

Built by Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain monks as mountain retreats, India’s magnificent rock-cut sanctuaries, monasteries, and temples offer travelers an unrivaled cultural experience, transporting them back to the formative stage of art and architecture for India’s indigenous religions.

This Approach Guide serves as an ideal companion for travelers seeking a deeper understanding this fantastic landscape, profiling India’s three premier rock-cut religious sites: Ajanta (Buddhist), Elephanta (Hindu), and Ellora (a mixture of Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain).

For each location, we first offer an overview, introducing travelers to the trademark features of its paintings, reliefs, and architecture. We devote special attention to the stylistic features that distinguish one site from the next.

We then offer detailed profiles of the most impressive and representative caves at Ajanta, Elephanta, and Ellora, walking step-by-step through their distinctive artistic and architectural highlights. The overall goal of these featured cave profiles is provide travelers with what is most important, a framework for understanding each cave and what makes it special.

And along the way, this guide provides our personal tips at each location for getting the most from your experience.

This Approach Guide contains:

Detailed profiles of 18 featured caves, hand-picked as the best examples of art and architecture in Ajanta, Elephanta, and Ellora.

Over 130 high-resolution images — photos, floorplans, and illustrations — with color highlights that make visual identification of key features easier.

* High-level maps of each site to ease navigation and plan your itinerary.

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Approach Guides are cultural travel guidebooks that take an in-depth look at key sites and draw connections among their history, art, and architecture.

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- Travel + Leisure

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