Kailasa Temple at Ellora
An entire temple carved from a single rock, top down
Under the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I (c. 756–773) the craftsmen of Ellora began cutting into a basalt hillside a temple to Shiva representing sacred Mount Kailash. They removed an estimated 200,000 tonnes of rock, carving from the top down a courtyard, a multi-storey shrine, life-size elephants and reliefs from the epics. It is one of the largest monolithic structures in the world; Ellora has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 8th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Middle East
- 750 Abbasid Revolution — 10 years earlier
- 762 Founding of Baghdad — 2 years later
Alive at the time
- Charlemagne (aged 12)
- Li Bai (aged 59)
- Emperor Kanmu (aged 23)