Gharapuri Island - Elephanta caves

We started the day aiming for Gharapuri Island where the Elephanta caves-are an extra ordinary temple built in the 5 and 8th century. The day started with the Taj looking splendid, bustle and crowds of people, a ferry ride there, 123 steps up to the caves and ended with a lovely ferry ride home with the breeze of the sea air. The masks came out for 3 of us, as the air had effected our throats!

The real shocker for us was to learn how the Portuguese used these caves snd statutes as a target firing range and  destroyed some of the statues as they valued Christianity and not Hinduism. 

The Shah built this as a temple of prayer. It’s truely magnificent how such a structure would have been chiseled out and the foresight to do this with the tools they had then. Even the engineering around this build! 

The earliest attempts to prevent further damage to the Caves were started by British India officials in 1909.The monuments were restored in the 1970s.  It is now only the pillars that are maintained ( for the structure) and the carvings are left to give it the authencity to uphold its value. In 1987, the restored Elephanta Caves were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are more monkeys than people on the island. We were warned that they were aggressive and not to eat in front of them.