A unique place called Elephanta Island, also known as the island Gharapuri, located to the east of Mumbai, one of the many islands of the city's harbor. This mysterious island is a magnet for tourists from around the world. After all, its greatest attraction are the underground stone cave temples are decorated with a huge number of amazingly beautiful statues. The entire temple complex in 1987 entered the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Its current name - Elephant - the island was in the XVII century by Portuguese researchers after they near the entrance to a cave temple complex was found carved from a single piece of basalt sculpture of an elephant (elephant - an elephant). They decided to take her to Portugal, but this venture was unsuccessful as they dropped it into the sea. Later, she was raised from the bottom of the British, and now the stone statue is located in the Museum of Dr. Bhau Daja, the former Victoria and Albert Museum.

The island is easily reached by ferry that runs between Elephanta and Mumbai harbor. He daily at 9 am and 2 pm, departs from the dock right next to the historic Gateway of India, and all the way to your destination will take approximately an hour. From the pier of the island to the caves is a straight road. Also, to get to the temple, you can use a small tram that dovozit visitors straight to the steps leading to the caves. All along the road are located shops and stores where you can purchase a variety of jewelry, souvenirs, food and drinks.

The area of ​​the whole island is only about 16KB km, before it was the capital of one of the local principalities. Today it is home to about 1,200 people, which are mainly engaged in farming - grow rice, as well as fishing and repairing boats. On Elephanta are three settlements: Shentbandar, Morabandar and Radzhbandar, the latter is the original capital of the island. Temple caves are located on the territory of Shentbandara.

The exact date of the creation of the caves is unknown. It is assumed that it is approximately VII century BC, even as ancient Indian Gupta Empire experienced its "golden age", and culture flourished and developed. That's when the idea of ​​building a church in honor of the Hindu god Shiva.

The cave can be reached through the main northern entrance that leads into a large hall that is supported by several massive columns. It was in this hall is a huge statue of Mahesamurti. Its height is 6, 3 m, and it depicts the god Shiva in his three forms: the Creator, Protector and Destroyer. Other sculptures, located near the entrance and on the side panels, are to achieve Siva. How, for example, a sculpture depicting the process of creating Shiva Ganges River.

When visiting the island should remember that tourists stay on the Elephanta prohibited at night, so you need to catch the last ferry reverse.

Every year in February, at the initiative of Tourism Development Corporation of Maharashtra, in the island of the festival dance.