The Kailasa Temple at Verul (Ellora), near Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) in Maharashtra, is one of the world’s most extraordinary rock-cut monuments and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Carved entirely from a single massive basalt rock in the 8th century CE (mainly under Rashtrakuta king Krishna I, around 756–773 CE), it is the largest monolithic rock-cut temple on Earth. Builders excavated it from the top down, removing an estimated 150,000–200,000 tons of rock to create a freestanding multi-storeyed temple complex roughly 50–80 metres long, 33–46 metres wide, and about 30–33 metres high.
Dedicated to Lord Shiva and designed to represent his mythical Himalayan abode, Mount Kailash, the temple features a towering vimana (shikhara), a pillared mandapa, a Nandi pavilion, gateway, courtyards, and intricate sculptures of deities, mythological scenes (including Ravana shaking Mount Kailash), elephants, and other figures. It forms the centrepiece of the Ellora Caves complex, which also includes Buddhist and Jain rock-cut caves.
Locals still call the site Verul (or Verul Leni), the traditional Marathi name for Ellora.
Note: Nearby in the same village is the Ghrishneshwar Jyotirlinga Temple (one of the 12 sacred Jyotirlingas), which is a different, later structural temple renovated by Ahilyabai Holkar. When people refer to the “Verul temple” in the context of ancient architecture and wonder, they almost always mean the Kailasa Temple.
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