These were a very late addition to my itinerary, but I could not have made a better decision as they were magnificent.

They are in a pretty compact area, being in a horseshoe shaped bend in the river; this makes visiting them pretty simple. The carvings here are impressive however the main point of interest is the remnants of the colourful painted interiors of the caves. The fact that the caves were untouched for over a millennium has helped to preserve many of them. I was really struck by how impressive the paintings were. They are particularly vivid and cover a pretty large amount of the interiors of many caves.

My guide was keen to display the echoing acoustics in one of the caves and it was a very impressive experience, I could imagine the effect being magnificent if there were several people chanting inside. I found the most impressive interior to be that of cave 26, with a nice carving of a reclining Buddha.

I arrived early and had to wait for the caves to open. My friendly guide for the morning took me off on a short hike to the lookout point on the other side of the river which offered a great view over the caves and also of the nice set of waterfalls nearby. I would thoroughly recommend making this short detour. When we returned I found out that it was world heritage week, and as such all entry fees were waived. It also meant there was a delegation touring the caves which I caught up with at the opening of an exhibition about the WHS of India.

This site always get compared to the reasonably nearby Ellora caves, they are very good companion sites. As Paul Tanner states below you will be hard pressed to find a better pair of sites anywhere in the world. I think that I preferred the visiting experience at Ajanta, the site was in a nicer setting and the crowds were a little lighter, it also had the added extra of the painted interiors. However I would say that nothing (at Ajanta or probably anywhere else) could quite compete with the magnificent Kailash temple at Ellora.

I visited both Ajanta and Ellora in one day starting from Aurangabad, it was a long day helped by a 4:30am arrival from Mumbai. My early morning decision to jump in a taxi to take me to both sites was richly rewarded.

An exceptional World Heritage Site in the very highest category and worth going well out of your way for.

[Site 9: Experience 8]