THE PENNY MAGAZINE OF THE Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15.] PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. [June 30, 1832 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE CAVE OF ELEPHANTA. [Illustration: A view of a cave, with large statues and pillars and two people standing inside.] One of the earliest monuments of India that attracted the notice of Europeans was the excavation of Elephanta, situated in a beautiful island of the same name, called by the natives Goripura, or _Mountain City_. This island is in the bay of Bombay, seven miles from Bombay castle; it is about six miles in circumference, and composed of two long hills with a narrow valley between them. The island has taken its familiar name from a colossal statue of an elephant, cut out of a detached mass of blackish rock unconnected with any stratum below. This figure has had another on its back, which the old travellers call a young elephant, but which, as far as we can judge from the drawing of what remains of it, has much more probably been a tiger. The head and neck of this elephant dropped off about 1814, owing to a large fissure that ran up through its back. The length of this colossal figure, from the forehead to the root of the tail, was 13 feet 2 inches; and the height at the head 7 feet 4 inches. The remains of this colossus stand about 250 yards to the right of the usual landing-place, which is towards the southern part of the island. After proceeding up the valley till the two mountains unite, we come to a narrow path, after ascending which there is a beautiful prospect of the northern part of the island, and the opposite shores of Salsette. “Advancing forward and keeping to the left along the bend of the hill, we gradually mount to an open space, and come suddenly on the grand entrance of a magnificent temple, whose huge massy columns seem to give support to the whole mountain which rises above it.