5
POPSKailash Cave Temple In the 8th and 9th centuries CE, the Kailash Cave Temple was carved out of the volcanic rock which formed countless plateaus in the western ghats (small mountain range), part of the geological formation known as the Deccan Plateau. Part of a group of 34 caves built into the side of this plateau, Kailash, cave number 16, is monumental by any standards. The Kailash rock-cut temple stands 30 metres (99 feet) high, 52 metres (170 feet) in length, and 33 metres (108 feet) wide. The other 33 caves, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain, were dug into the side of the plateau much like other cave dwellings, but Kailash appears to have been literally excavated from the top in order to create a free-standing temple encircled by smaller cave shrines, the entire complex carved out of the same black rock.