Both the boys remembered that they had seen toys of this description. "Now," he continued, "imagine that the block of wood is a rock 600 feet high, and two miles long, rising, with very steep sides, from a level plain." "Yes." [Illustration: VESTIBULE OF THE GREAT TEMPLE AT ELLORA.] "And then imagine that the solid rock is cut away so as to leave temples, pyramids, obelisks, and statues of various kinds, just as the wood is chipped away in the Swiss toys. If you can picture these in your mind you will have a vivid conception of the wonderful Caves of Ellora. They extend for more than a mile along the base of a hill such as I have described, and the labor of making them is almost incalculable. Here is the account of one of the excavations, written by a gentleman who visited the place: "'The cave called _Khailas_, or Paradise, is the largest and most elaborate of the series. It is a quarry-like excavation, 250 feet deep; its length is 401 feet, and its breadth 133 feet. There is a wall of solid rock separating the enclosure from the plain. The interior of the quarry is occupied in the centre by the temple. This is of the usual form, consisting of the shrine, with its pyramidal dome, and several pillared porticoes and halls. The sides of the quarry are steep, and hollowed out into successive stories of halls and galleries, into which light is admitted by open colonnades. All these buildings--the great temple, its porticoes and galleries, as well as the other apartments, and the massive wall which divides the whole from the valley--are carved and quarried out of the solid rock. [Illustration: INTERIOR OF TEMPLE HEWN FROM THE ROCK.] "'The temple is about 85 feet high to the top of the pyramidal spire over the shrine. Its length, including the porticoes, which are connected with it by hanging galleries of stone, is not less than 150 feet, and the greatest breadth about 90 feet. The largest apartment is 66 feet by 55. Its ceiling, which is supported by heavy square columns, is not more than 12 feet high, and carved to represent rafters. The columns and walls of the apartment were most elaborately carved, as was also the whole exterior of the building; the designs represent the exploits of Ram in Lunka, or Ceylon, and the chambers and galleries in the sides of the quarry were similarly decorated. In the enclosure between the temple and gate-way are two obelisks, 75 or 80 feet high, supported on the backs of elephants. Like all the other buildings and accessories, they are carved from the solid rock.'" One of the boys asked what was the probable age of the Caves of Ellora, and by whom they were made.