Indiana Jones and the Caves of Aurangabad

The name "Aurangabad" sounds like something from Lord of the Rings, and the surrounding region has sights as spectacular as anything you'll see in a movie: Ellora Caves, Daulatabad Fortress, and Ajanta Caves.

The Ellora Caves are a complex of 34 Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples carved into a hillside. The temples were carved right into the rock, growing increasingly more elaborate over the centuries (conveniently laid out in chronological order from South to north). Simple Buddhist monasteries from 400 AD, to the intricate Jain sculptures from 800-1000 AD. We spent half a day dodging bats and exploring pillared halls, Buddha alcoves, and weathered wall sculptures.

The centerpiece of Ellora is the Kailasa temple. 400,000 tons of rock were removed to carve the temple IN ONE PIECE from the top down.

Daulatabad is a 14th-century fort atop a 200m-tall hill. It looks impregnable, and is hard enough to climb unopposed (don't get lost in the maze of dark tunnels designed to confuse invaders). The ruler of the Delhi Sultanate moved the capital here from Delhi in 1327, but they moved it back seven years later when they ran out of water.

The Ajanta Caves. Much further away. Only 30 of them, all Buddhist, but they were built from 200 BC to 500 AD and are in remarkably good shape. The Ellora Caves were vandalized during the periods of Muslim rule, but the Ajanta caves had already been forgotten by that point so the incredible wall paintings have more or less survived. Rediscovered in 1819 by British officers on a tiger hunt.

So yes, Aurangabad is like being in an Indiana Jones movie, except you take a private car there and the biggest danger is someone will try to aggressively sell you things you don't want.

-Peter