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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THE SANCHI STUPAS, MADHYA PRADESH

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The calm and serene #Sanchi #Stupa, a #World #Heritage site in #MadhyaPradesh #travelblogger #ttot #lp #travel #trip pic.twitter.com/Jlp82Cz18x

— ? ? NandiniDéka ? ? (@NandiniDeka) November 15, 2015

So, there it was ~ the 3rd century BCE buddhist architectural monument of height: 16.46 m (54.0 ft), declared a World Heritage Site right before my eyes. Its said, that its main dome has relics and ashes of Lord Buddha himself spread all over it. Not satisfied with viewing it from far, I decided to have a closer look. After all why else did I purchase the tickets for, no?

I had my fill clicking pictures going through the entire complex - its huge! Quite amazing, infact. Just imagine the thrill of walking down 'history' itself! Check them all out below :-)


trying to touch it...

okay, we go inside first...


I was expecting one stupa; but hey, I can see ~ there's more...


ah there, atlast; but which is the main....lemme check out! Got it, yay...



the four HUGE gates to the main stupa...different carvings in each...


its said, out of the 4 guarding buddhas only one's head remained intact, rest broken by invaders...




one can go up the dome and get view of the ancient relics, as well as the scenery around...
Sanchi Stupa is a Buddhist complex, famous for its Great Stupa, on a hilltop at Sanchi Town in Raisen District of the State of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is located in 46 kilometres north-east of Bhopal, capital of Madhya Pradesh. ( wiki )

Around the complex, I noticed, there were other ancient structures too. Some complete, some broken, some left mid-way. I walked about as I tried to imagine the story attached to each of them. I followed a guide for the main stupa tour; but very soon, I drifted off on my own. Its more fun that way :-)

someone whispered there could be graves of other monks on the ground, so I treaded with care...


make sure to get some souvenirs on your way out...
Inside the complex, there's a cafeteria as well as a paid urinal. So, quite an organised place. After spending some nice time roaming around, I decided to move on to what other exciting stuff MP was to offer me that day. I decided not to take any risk and go far, so thought of attractions close by only. And not disappointing, they came in full swing my way :-)

Address : Sanchi Town, Madhya Pradesh, India, Asia
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