Cave 16 in Ellora, India

This is cave 16 in the cave complex at Ellora, India. A temple made of stone towers over the viewer. The walls of the temple are punctuated with niches filled with statues. At the bottom of the wall, there is a frieze of elephants, some of which have been broken or have weathered away. Several engaged columns (decorative, nonfunctional columns) rise up the walls to meet the roof. The Ellora Caves, carved mostly between the seventh and tenth centuries, were hewn from the stone faces of the Charanadari Hills into a series of temples and monasteries. Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains carved caves for each religion and lived side by side in peace.