The Ajanta Caves are cut into the northern wall of a U-shaped gorge of the Waghora river, in flood basalt of the Deccan plateau. Work came in two phases. The first dates from roughly the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE. The second, in the 5th and 6th centuries CE, was under the Vakataka emperor Harisena, who is credited with Cave 1.
Viharas, or monasteries, form most of the caves. They have square plans, a colonnaded central hall and attached dormitory cells. Four completed chaitya-grihas, Caves 9, 10, 19 and 26, are narrow worship halls with a stupa in the apse. Caves 1, 2, 16 and 17 hold the largest surviving corpus of ancient Indian wall paintings.
The British officer John Smith was shown Cave 10 in 1819 while hunting tigers. UNESCO listed them in 1983, and the Archaeological Survey of India manages the site.
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