Elephanta Caves, Mumbai

If you’re setting off on your holiday this year in desperate need of some R&R, spare a thought for the dedicated workers who chipped away, day by day, year after year, to create the cave temples and rock-cut stone sculptures that are the star attractions of Elephanta Island (known locally as Gharapuri, or ‘city of caves’).

Elephant Island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai Harbour, about an hour’s boat ride from the Gateway of India. It was named after the elephant statues that Portuguese settlers found on the island during their early exploration of India; the first landings are recorded from the 15th century and, although the largest of these elephant statues is now in Mumbai’s Victoria Gardens (Jijamata Udyan), the name stuck. The cave temples, sculptures and wall carvings are dedicated largely to the Hindu god Shiva, although there are also two Buddhist caves and several Buddhist stupa mounds (‘heaps’ or mound-like structures). These are believed to contain the remains of Buddhist monks, and are typically used as places of meditation. Created between AD 450 and 750 (5th and 8th centuries), the Elephanta Caves were, for hundreds of years, a place of worship and storytelling, with mythologies and history portrayed in the beautiful basalt rock carvings. The caves were damaged during the years of Portuguese colonisation, but underwent partial restoration in the 1970s. Today, they are maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.