VISITING THE KANHERI CAVES INSIDE SANJAY GANDHI NATIONAL PARK, BORIVALI

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When going to Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a visit to these ancient buddhist caves are highly recommended. Its amazing to see how the monks lived in the past, carving out the caves from the rocks ( a single rock in this case ) with the various Viharas and Chaityas. Maharashtra has plenty of other buddhist sites too, but those are far away - mostly in the western ghat hills - dotted all over the Syhadris. Hence, if one wants to visit caves nearer the city, Kanheri is the perfect spot.


I took a bus from right inside the national park...


driving through the dense forest to the middle...


dense means really dense...


this road is supposedly very haunted too...


after twenty minutes, we reach the caves site in middle of the national park...


from the base...


lots of stairs to climb to reach the caves...


ticket-ghar and some info about the caves...


approaching the caves...climbing those stairs can get tiring...duh!


the caves carved from a single basalt rock formation...incredible, haan?


some interesting carvings here...




moi, trying to touch it...


there's a central meditation/conference hall too with lots of pillars on either side...




time to explore the outsides...

I go around the site... come across many tourists that day...


all viewing the national park views ahead and chatting animatedly...


one can get 360 degree views of the entire national park from up here...its all green...


time to go down...


there's a cafeteria at the mid-base, I see people making a bee-line for it...


all coming to quench their thirst, so did I...as I admired the caves from that spot...


it was amusing how the guards whistled, ushering everyone out of the site since it was closing...
finally, it was time for me to leave the site as well, I had other spooky plans in the park that day...

The Kanheri Caves are a group of caves and rock-cut monuments cut into a massive basalt outcrop in the forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, on the island of Salsette in the western outskirts of Mumbai, India. The Kanheri Caves in the centre of the park were an important Buddhist learning centre and pilgrimage site sculpted by Buddhist monks between the 9th and the 1st centuries BCE ( wiki ).

Address : Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali ( east ), Maharashtra
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PANDAVLENI CAVES, NASHIK

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After a fairly productive, enriching and truely overwhelming time at Trimakeshwar Kumbh Mela, on returning, I decided to head for another tourist attraction in Nashik - the Pandavleni Caves. Not sure whats the connection with 'pandavs' as such, but this was a Buddhist site. It was half hour from Nashik city; not far from the city infact, as the bus mostly toured around the city picking up passengers - so can say, it lies on the outskirts of the city, in the suburbs. The bus from Trimbak dropped me off near the Rly station, from where, I had to go to the Central bus stand ( new ) to catch my bus to the caves. The places were not far from each other, so I reached quick enough.


catching a bus, and then, off to the Pandavleni Caves...


spotting the hill where the caves are located, from a distance...


looks tiny from across the road...


gets bigger as one approaches it...


the B.R.Ambedkar Memorial and Artillery Museum at base ~ skipped both...


the rates sign-board...and my ticket ~ its cheap!


entering...wow...trees everywhere, hiding the sun...


climb, climb, climb the stairs ( ooh...there were many, almost 150+ )
climb, climb, climb till you reach the top...phew! some good cardio eh...?

the caves...

tried touching 'em...

#Ancient #Buddhist #Archaeological #Heritage #Pandulena #Caves #Maharashtra #Sahyadris #travelblogger #ttot #lp #wow pic.twitter.com/4c8n4zDzcr

— ? ? NandiniDéka ? ? (@NandiniDeka) November 24, 2015

the hill is in round shape ...and there are more caves along the way...



interesting and elaborate carvings in the various viharas and chaitya...


view from top...Nashik City and the Ambedkar memorial below...


another view from top..another hill stood just opposite...


coming down...the lush greens is what makes one forget the tiring steps...
There's no water or food-stall at the top ( you have to carry your own ), but thankfully, there's a paid washroom at the base with running water. After spending close to an hour exploring the caves, I took a bus and headed to the station to catch my train back home. Oh...what a day it was.....

The Nasik Caves or sometimes Pandavleni Caves, are a group of 24 caves carved between the 1st century BCE and the 3nd century CE by Jain Kings, though additional sculptures were added up to about the 6th century, reflecting changes in Buddhist devotional practices mainly. ( wiki )

Address : Pandav Lene Rd, Buddha Vihar, Pathardi Phata, Nashik, Maharashtra 422010
Read next part - Here! Stay tuned for all my road, rail, flight, cruise & walk trips.
( Images - ©Mine. All rights reserved. )
Our Rating Scale is : 1 to 5 = ◕◕◕◕◕ - It was Awesome!

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