Elephanta Island (also called Gharapuri (literally "the city of caves") or Pory Island) is one of a number of islands in

Mumbai Harbour Mumbai Harbour (also English; Bombay Harbour or Front Bay, Marathi ''Mumba'ī bandar''), is a natural deep-water harbour in the southern portion of the Ulhas River estuary. The narrower, northern part of the estuary is called Thana Creek. Th ...

, east of

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Tourist attractions and accessibility

This island is a popular tourist destination because of the island's

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

s, the Elephanta Caves, that have been carved out of rock. The island is easily accessible by ferry from Mumbai, being about from the south east coast of the island city. Boats leave daily from the

Gateway of India The Gateway of India is an arch-monument completed in 1924 on the waterfront of Mumbai (Bombay), India. It was erected to commemorate the landing of George V for his coronation as the Emperor of India in December 1911 at Strand Road near We ...

, taking about an hour each way. The tickets for these can be bought at the Gateway itself. The first ferry leaves at 9 am and the last at 2 pm. From the boat landing stage on the island, a walkway leads to steps that go up to the famous caves. There is also a narrow-gauge toy train from the boat area on the dock to the base of the steps leading up to the caves (about 600 meters). Along the path, hawkers sell souvenirs like necklaces, anklets, showpieces and keychains. There are also stalls to buy food and drinks. Small monkeys play along the sides of the path, occasionally thieving items from the hawkers, trashcans and tourists. Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) has plans to connect the island from Haji Bunder, Mumbai via Ropeway. Once built, it will take only 14 minutes to reach the UNESCO World Heritage Site whereas currently ferry takes about an hour.

Geology

Elephanta Island is composed of volcanic rock that was formed during an eruptive sequence of the

Deccan Traps The Deccan Traps are a large igneous province of west-central India (17–24°N, 73–74°E). They are one of the largest volcanic features on Earth, taking the form of a large shield volcano. They consist of many layers of solidified flood ...

volcanic province. Dating of the rocks suggest that they formed during the latest Cretaceous or earliest Paleocene (66 to 65 million years ago). This makes them contemporaneous with many of the other Deccan Traps eruptions elsewhere in India, but slightly older than the volcanic rock underlying adjacent mainland parts of Mumbai, which is dated to 62.5 million years ago. Ankaramite rock found on the island is significantly younger (potentially as much as 6 million years younger) than the other rocks such as

tholeiite The tholeiitic magma series () is one of two main magma series in subalkaline igneous rocks, the other being the Calc-alkaline magma series, calc-alkaline series. A magma series is a chemically distinct range of magma compositions that describes ...

that comprise it, suggesting that the island was formed by eruptions that may have lasted for nearly 6 million years.

History

Known in ancient times as ''Gharapuri'' (or, 'place of caves'), the name ''Elephanta island'', was given by 16th-century Portuguese explorers, after seeing a monolithic basalt sculpture of an elephant found near the entrance. They decided to take it home but ended up dropping it into the sea because their chains were not strong enough. Later, this sculpture was moved to the Victoria Gardens and then the Victoria and Albert Museum (now Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum) in

, by the British.HT Cafe, Mumbai, Monday, 4 June 2007 pg.31 - Article "Lord of the Islands" by Jerry Pinto This island was once the capital of a powerful local kingdom. In Manuscript F by

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

(kept at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

) there is a note in which he says "Map of Elephanta in India which Antonello the haberdasher has." It is unclear who this Florentine traveller Antonello might have been.

Orientation

The island has an area of . It is located at approximately . The area comes under the jurisdiction of the

Raigad district Raigad district (), previously Colaba fort, Colaba district, is a district in the Konkan division of Maharashtra, India. The headquarters of the district is Alibag. Other major cities in the district are Panvel, Karjat, Navi Mumbai, Khopoli, Sh ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

Agricultural makeup

The island is thickly wooded with palm, mango, and tamarind trees.

Inhabitants

It has a population of about 1,200 people. The inhabitants are mainly involved in growing rice, fishing and repairing boats. There are two British-era cannons at the top. Quite recently, a small dam has been built so as to hold rainwater but that part of the island is privately owned and not accessible for tourists. There are a total of three villages: Shentbandar, Morabandar and Rajbandar, of which Rajbandar is the capital. Caves and stalls can be seen in Shentbandar which is the first village accessed by tourists when they arrive on the island. Morabandar is covered with thick forest. Staying overnight after sunset on the island is not permitted for tourists as they are expected to leave before the departure of the last return ferry. The first return ferry leaves at 12:30 p.m. and the last return ferry leaves at 6:30 p.m. The ferry service is closed in the monsoon season for four months due to torrential rains at the sea.

Gallery

View of Elephanta island jetty.JPG, View of Elephanta island jetty, from Elephanta Caves Thane Creek and Elephanta Island 03-2016 - img14 Elephanta Caves.jpg, An Elephanta Caves

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

India-Elephanta-Water.jpg, Boats of fishermen living on the island Thane Creek and Elephanta Island 03-2016 - img12 Elephanta Island ferry.jpg, Elephanta-Mumbai ferry Thane Creek and Elephanta Island 03-2016 - img25 view from Cannon Hill.jpg, View from Cannon Point Thane Creek and Elephanta Island 03-2016 - img26 view from Cannon Hill.jpg, Houses on Elephanta Island Elephanta Canon 2 1.jpg, Cannon at Elephanta Island Elephanta Ferry 39.jpg, Ferry to Elephanta Island Elephanta Ferry 3.jpg, Sea gulls enroute Elephanta Island Elephanta Cave 1 2.jpg, Entrance of Cave 1 of Elephanta Caves

References

External links

*
Elephanta caves

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Going’s tough at Gharapuri
* Duffer's Guide to Elephanta, ''

Mid-Day ''Mid-Day'' (stylised as mid-day) is a morning daily Indian compact newspaper. Editions in various languages including Gujarati and English have been published out of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune so far. In 2011, the Delhi and Bangalore ...

'', 22 February 2007, pg A14 {{Authority control Geography of Raigad district Islands of Mumbai Tourist attractions in Raigad district Islands of India Populated places in India