The Kailasa Temple is a huge Hindu temple in Ellora, India. It is one of the most interesting and impossible structures on Earth. To start with, it is literally carved out of basalt rock, an extremely hard rock that requires specialized tools even today to work with. The temple is not built out of blocks or pieces, like the Great Pyramid of Giza, or like any other structure in the modern world. It is located on a slope, and the slope is solid basalt, which is a really hard rock. And to built it, something had to cut downward into the ground of solid basalt to carve out the temple. The temple is below ground level, and again it is not constructed from pieces that are assembled. It is totally carved out of, or excavated from, the basalt rock, a large single basalt rock. And if that is not amazing enough, it seems like every square inch of the temple is covered with extremely intricate carvings and writings, all, again, carved or sculpted out of the same single large basalt rock. The only modern day comparable situation would be building something with 3-D printing, where a machine moves around and constructs a solid thing with a complicated shape. So, something strange occurred to build the Kailasa temple, and now you are going to know exactly how it was built.

Target

Target Goal: To observe the construction of the Kailasa Temple at the Ellora Caves in Aurangabad district, Maharashtra, India

FOCUS 1

Target for Focus 1: The construction of the Kailasa Temple at the Ellora Caves in Aurangabad district, Maharashtra, India

Target Time: The peak of construction of the Kailasa Temple

Subject A: The most senior supervisor of the construction of the Kailasa Temple