One of the largest rock-cut monastery-temple cave complexes in the world, it has Jain, Buddhist and Hindu, monuments and artwork, which is dating from the 600–1000 CE period. These consist of 12 Buddhist, 17 Hindu, and 5 Jain caves​ which makes it a total of 34 caves and these are open to the public, although there are around 100 caves found in excavation. The rock used to make this cave is basalt rock which is the strongest rock after granite. Ellora is 30kms away from the city of Aurangabad. Tourists need to stay at Aurangabad and take an excursion tour to visit the Ellora caves.