mysterious caves of india

The name comes from Borra Guhalu in Telugu Borra means something that has bored into the ground and guhalu means caves. They are located in the Ananthagiri hills of the Araku valley of the Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh. In 1807, William King George of the Geological Survey of India discovered the caves.

The caves are basically Karstic limestone structures extending to a depth of 80 m, and are considered the deepest caves in India. The caves distinctly exhibit a variety of impressive speleothems ranging from very small to big and irregularly shaped stalactites and stalagmites

The Bhimbetka are an archaeological site of the Paleolithic Age, exhibiting the earliest traces of human life on the Indian subcontinent. It is located in the Raisen district in Madhya Pradesh, inside the Ratapani Wildlife Sanctuary. Here we can see a close up of the cave paintings depicting men.

he caves were declared a World Heritage Site in 2003, and some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 30,000 years old.

A war scene is shown in one of the cave painting in Bhimbetka. There are over 500 natural caves here, which have a large collection of pre historic rock paintings depicting scenes from everyday life, hunting scenes and war. The painting were discovered in 1958. The caves also deliver early evidence of dance.

A Hindu pilgrim worships in front of an ice stalagmite, which is representative of a Shiva Lingam, or the god Shiva. It is one of the most revered of Hindu shrines. Thousands of Hindu devotees, braving sub zero temperatures, come to pay their respects at the cave.

The cave, enveloped by the rugged Himalayan mountains, itself is covered with snow most of the year except for a short period of time in summer when it is open for pilgrims. The stalagmite, or Shiva Linga, is formed due to freezing of water drops that fall from the roof of the cave on to the floor and grows up vertically from the cave floor.

These caves are one of the finest testimonials to ancient vishwakarma sthapathis , and are located 6km from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. These caves were carved out of solid sandstone on a hillside in the 4th 5th centuries AD.

The Undavalli caves are an example of how many Buddhist artefacts and stupas in the state were converted into Hindu temples and deities. It was originally a Jain cave resembling the architecture of Udayagiri and Khandgiri. The main cave is one of the earliest examples of the Gupta architecture, primarily primitive rock cut monastery cells carved into the sandstone hills.

One of India s most popular cave temples, Vaishno Devi is one of the holy Hindu temples dedicated to Shakti, located in the Trikuta Mountains. Officials claim that millions of pilgrims visit the shrine each year.