The Kailasa temple, Cave 16 at Ellora, is one piece of basalt: the Archaeological Survey of India calls it the world’s largest single monolithic excavation. In archaeologist M. K. Dhavalikar’s reconstruction (Deccan College, Pune, 1982), carvers cut trenches from the hilltop to free a giant block, the trenches alone removing an estimated 1.5 to 2 million cubic feet of rock, and each part appears to have been finished as the work moved down, so no scaffolding was needed. Carving can only take rock away: in his view the main temple was planned from the start, while side shrines, a back gallery and some reliefs were cut into the surrounding cliff walls later.
▶ Full WhyLab 3D episode: Seoul’s 40 m Deep Tunnel Is Built to Stay Empty. So How Does It Stop Floods?
A whole temple, cut downward out of one hill. Did you expect that? Which everyday mystery should we cut open next?
🔔 Subscribe to WhyLab 3D: one hidden-engineering secret, cut open in 3D, every week.
#Shorts #engineering #howitworks
source
A whole temple, cut downward out of one hill. Did you expect that?
Fact: Kailasa (Cave 16) at Ellora, Maharashtra, is hewn from the Deccan Trap basalt; the Archaeological Survey of India calls it the largest single monolithic excavation in the world. Britannica gives it as some 50 m long, 33 m wide and 30 m high, and notes that, unlike the other caves, which were first cut horizontally into the rock face, it was excavated downward from a basaltic slope. In M. K. Dhavalikar's 1982 reconstruction, the masons started from the top and first cut three large trenches (two of about 270 x 50 x 100 ft and one of 150 x 30 x 100 ft, that deep in only half the area) to isolate a block of rock, removing roughly 1.5 to 2 million cubic feet. If one person cut about 4 cu ft a day, 250 labourers would need about five and a half years for the trenches; he puts the whole work at no more than ten to twelve years and calls this hypothetical. Carving began as soon as rock surface was available, and each part appears to have been finished as the work moved down, avoiding any need for scaffolding. He sees the gateway, Nandi pavilion, elephants and pillars as planned from the start; H. Goetz thought some were added later and that the temple was too big for Krishnaraja's fifteen-year reign. The side shrines in the scarp and the back gallery are later additions, and Dhavalikar dates the Ravana relief some three to four decades after the main shrine. The ASI notes the builders traced the horizontal and vertical joints in the rock to minimise labour. Benjamin Rowland, quoted by Dhavalikar, argued quarrying in place probably took less work than transporting cut stone. The Baroda copper plate (c. 812-13) credits Krishnaraja; the attribution is not completely certain because the plates are not physically connected to the caves. The construction scenes are 3D illustrations, not photos.
Fact-checked with the sources below.
Sources:
• Archaeological Survey of India, Ellora Caves (World Heritage): https://asi.nic.in/pages/WorldHeritageElloraCaves
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Ellora Caves: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/243/
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ellora Caves: https://www.britannica.com/place/Ellora-Caves
• M. K. Dhavalikar, Kailasa: The Stylistic Development and Chronology, Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute 41 (1982): https://www.jstor.org/stable/42931407
• Kailasa Temple, Ellora (Wikipedia, dating of the Ravana relief and the copper-plate attribution): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kailasa_Temple,_Ellora
Imagine How did the architect shared his never done before imagination to the site engineer and then the foreman and the stone masonry workers without a software like Auto desk or 3D design.
Unbelievable 😊
Lara Croft taking notes 😂
The mighty Rashtrakutas.
How did they build a string of perfect round bead using hammer and chisel. Didn't make sense. Somebintricate eyes feature details. Flower petals and leaves We aren't stupid, ok!
AI generated. This is not the real temple.
They prolly scammed it out of the basalt
Proud of India 🇮🇳 no other country have this
You probably got it all wrong. Such temples were cut out of rocks with precision using technology that does not exist even today. The past holds great mystery. We had much advanced technology then the records of which do not exist today. Perhaps some great calamity or catastrophic occurance obliterated all past records.
Were there any Drawings to which they worked against.
https://youtube.com/shorts/h0nR5YW9mts?si=8ZT8xa3RVxZ-5hHp
https://youtube.com/shorts/h0nR5YW9mts?si=8ZT8xa3RVxZ-5hHp
https://youtube.com/shorts/h0nR5YW9mts?si=8ZT8xa3RVxZ-5hHp
❌ WRONG.
NO SUCH COUNTRY AS INDIA IN THOSE DAYS.
Built by Rashtrakutas
For the people who believe it was carved using laser: what makes you think that strategically placed fire using oil and quickly dosing with water won't do the trick?
This is certainly a “wonder of the world”, yet other not so creative or structurally mystical buildings are called “wonders of the world” why?
Высекли, сечёшь? Повторите😅😅😅
Basalt rock is also incredibly difficult to work with. The Mughal king tried to destroy the temple but his army only made a few scratches after a few years. The copper plate nearby that says who built it, also says it was built using a machine that melts rock, something we would describe as laser cutting today. The only fault with that theory is that we don't want to accept that such technology existed in our past. The excavated rock cannot be located, plausible to the laser cutting story.
Not sure they only use chisels and hammers
This was not done by himans we had help from aliens much like the pyramids. All these unexplained stuff is clearly with alien help.
Build by 😈
How do even get the right measurements so precise to even carve something like that?..something to think about
Mainstream archeological explanation is impractical. Can't make this with hammers and chisels. This temple is carved out of hard volcanic basalt rock, breaking it even with even sledgehammer hits to chisels is not possible, as was demonstrated recently by a utub chanel. Standard Iron chisel is a 4 on hardnesd scale whereas Volcanic Basalt in 5-7. So how exactly was the fine statues with detailed carvings made. How were millions of tonnes of rocks removed and carved to exact specifications without making a mistake without even a blueprint?
4 cu feet / day. Impossible.. may be in a month.
It is simple a temple built using laser technology that's all bro….
Old Indian peoples where so knowledgeable that they are even able to build nuclear weapons.(Even Oppenheimer say's that….)
These are more than Wonders of the world
🎉❤ amazing 🎉❤
Giant 3D laser printer …
They use a gigantic 3D printer from alien technology.
We need to add this in 7 wonders of the world
amazing
I can't believe Petra gets more worldwide attention than this remarkable artefact…
Personally I think they both deserve our awe.