After an incredible day visiting the caves in Ajanta - the ones that are CARVED OUT and not BUILT UP ... - we spent 3 hours in a car travelling east to a place where the third largest crater in the world made by a meteor, Lonar Crater.
Since I could not get any good aerial pictures ... you can have a look here if you like.
Wikipedia tells us that "Lonar Lake is a saline soda lake located at Lonar in Buldana district, Maharashtra, India, which was created by a meteor impact during the Pleistocene Epoch. This lake ... is both saline and alkaline
in nature...
Lonar Lake has a mean diameter of 1.2 kilometres (3,900 ft) and is
about 137 metres (449 ft) below the crater rim. The meteor crater rim is
about 1.8 kilometres (5,900 ft) in diameter... The crater's age is usually estimated to be 52,000 ± 6,000 years ... although a study published in 2010 gives an age of 570,000 ± 47,000 years."
"Mummy, your hat is really ugly and embarassing!" Yeah, well, it does give protection AND it is foldable!!
I must admit none of us are overly interested in geology, so we soon directed our interest in the direction of the only restaurant for miles. Besides, it was hot! (Maia experimenting with my camera :-) )
On our way back up we ran into another family on an outing.
They deserved a break - they had been all the way down to the water! After a while they did perk up ...
Maia trying "da look" on as well...
After being watered (beered ...?) and fed, we entered the car, but only to go a few hundred metres. Suddenly we took a right turn onto ... well, maybe it used to be a dirt track, but ... let's just say it needed some work ...
...and ended up in a village where the most fantastic little temple was hidden, quite litterally hidden for a long time actually.
"The gorgeous Daityasudan temple sits in the middle of a large stone courtyard and is missing a shikhara. GAM informed us that to preserve it from the rampaging Mughal forces, locals covered the entire temple in mud building a small hillock in the process. The temple was excavated out of the hill only in the 19th century and has since been used regularly by the locals.
The carvings on the outer walls of the temple
were exquisite...
Inside, the Antara (passageway between the sabha mandap and inner
sanctum) had exquisite carvings in the four corners of the ceiling.
The idol of Lord Vishnu was placed in the inner sanctum in the 19th century and is not the original one, which seems to have been plundered.." source
We also found this little person, who was very excited to have her picture taken, albeit hiding it well ...
Back outside we were joined by all her friends.
Life in a village in India. In this particular one the children, goats, pigs and whatever else had a very special temple to play in.
All the children followed us back to the car and wanted us to promise to come back soon!
"Mummy, your hat is really ugly and embarassing!" Yeah, well, it does give protection AND it is foldable!!
Yepp, just what we needed
The chef is happy :-) No, really! He's just doing his cool dude look. By the way, this place in the middle of nowhere served the best biryani I have had so far in India. Goes to show ... don't judge the dog ...
"The gorgeous Daityasudan temple sits in the middle of a large stone courtyard and is missing a shikhara. GAM informed us that to preserve it from the rampaging Mughal forces, locals covered the entire temple in mud building a small hillock in the process. The temple was excavated out of the hill only in the 19th century and has since been used regularly by the locals.
Bye bye
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