Ajanta Caves

The last site I visited was the Ajanta Caves which contain Buddhist religious sculptures, paintings, and shrines built as early as the 2nd century.  The caves were hidden for sometime until accidentally discovered by the British during a hunting party in the early 1800s.  The site is set up in a semi circle and contain 28 caves:

 

Before entering any of the caves we were asked to remove our shoes and if we were to take photos not use the flash feature.  The caves were dark and so beautiful to explore.  Here are a few pictures from just outside the caves

 

 

Cave 9 was my favorite - I think it was the entrance that got me!

Inside the caves were amazing sculptures and paintings - a few caves even had 3D paintings!  I was so impressed at how greatly preserved they were.

On our way back to Pune we stopped off at a small roadside stand to enjoy fresh sugar cane juice.  Throughout my trip I've seen these trucks packed high with sugar cane (pardon the blurry picture):

 

 

These are the machines used to make the sugar cane juice and a picture of my glass:

 

It was very sweet and I was surprised by the color!  I'm glad I was able to try it while I was here!!  So that sums up my last weekend in India.  Special thanks to Srikanth and Sachin for taking me around and showing me all these great and exciting places - I had a fantastic weekend!