caves

A series of 29 Buddhist cave temples dating from as early as the 2nd century BCE, the Ajanta Caves contain some of the greatest masterpieces of Buddhist art in India.

Stretching for a half-mile along the west bank of a river, this site includes some 1,350 caves and 40 pagodas, filled with thousands of Buddhist statues carved out of the hard limestone cliffs.

Located near Datong in the Shanxi province, the Yungang Grottoes are one of the three most famous rock-cut temples in China. Their rich carvings and paintings date primarily from the 5th and 6th centuries.

The Ellora Caves are a magnificent complex of 34 Buddhist, Hindu and Jain temples extending over more than 2 kilometers in central India.

This hilltop monastery in Subiaco enshrines the sacred cave in which St. Benedict lived as a hermit before he organized his first monastic community. Inside, the church is covered in beautiful Gothic frescoes.

The holiest site at Lourdes, this is the grotto in which Mary appeared to Bernadette in 1858 and the source of the shrine's healing waters.

According to legend, seven Christian boys were locked in this cave by the Romans in c.250 AD, fell asleep, and woke up in the 5th century. It became a place of burial and pilgrimage.

A famous cave complex in southwest France, the Lascaux Caves contain some of the oldest and finest prehistoric art in the world. The paintings, which mainly depict majestic animals, are around 17,000 years old.

The second holiest site in Judaism and very important in Islam and Christianity, the Cave of the Patriarchs is a walled complex built by Herod in the 1st century BCE to shelter the cave tombs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.