Ellora is a site of outstanding cave temples, datable between c. ad 575 and the end of the 9th century, 20 km north of Aurangabad in the Sahyadri Hills, Maharashtra, India. The caves were excavated from volcanic rock along a 2-km stretch of west-facing embankment. There are 34 major caves, numbered consecutively rather than chronologically, starting with the Buddhist group (Caves 1-13) in the south. Other groups are dedicated to the Brahmanical pantheon (Caves 14-29) and to Jainism (Caves 30-34). The most notable monument is Cave 16, the Kailasa Temple, which represents the culmination of rock-cut architecture, with huge sculptural reliefs heightening the overall symbolism of the temple as cosmic mountain and as the home of Shiva.