Top 10 Sacred Caves
The ecstatic
faces and swaying bodies of Hindu deities in the temples of the Elephanta Caves
seem to be listening to the drone of ancient Indian instruments.
Photograph
by Rekha Bhatt, My Shot
From the
National Geographic book Sacred Places of a Lifetime
- Actun Tunichil Muknal, Belize
In myths, journeys to the underworld are never easy,
and after visiting Actun Tunichil Muknal (Cave of the Stone Sepulchre), you may
feel that you have been through your own epic test. Access to the
Maya
sacrificial site within the cave involves hiking, wading, and underwater
swimming, but nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) underground you will reach the
resting place of the “crystal maiden,” a complete female skeleton that sparkles
from eons of crystal calcification. The cave also contains Maya pottery shards,
many showing the “kill hole” intended to allow spirits to escape.- Elephanta Caves, Gharapuri Island, India
Carved out of a hillside in the fifth century, the
ecstatic faces and swaying bodies of Hindu deities in the temples of the
Elephanta Caves seem to be listening to the drone of ancient Indian
instruments. The sinuous curves of the Siva Nataraja, or many-armed cosmic
dancer, and the three faces of the Trimurti, representing the creator,
preserver, and destroyer aspects of the god Siva, are as expressive today as
centuries ago.
- Longmen Caves, China
Cut into the Xiangshan and Longmen Shan hillsides
above the Yi River, the Longmen (or “Dragon’s Gate”) complex of temple grottoes
is an exquisite treasury of Buddhist carvings comprising 2,345 caves and
niches, 2,800 inscriptions, and 43 pagodas, the earliest dating from the
Northern Wei dynasty (A.D. 493).
- Dambulla Cave, Sri Lanka
This complex of five Buddhist cave shrines was
commissioned by King Valagambahu in 1 B.C. and has been a pilgrimage site for
22 centuries. Exquisitely painted and gilded murals, as well as sculptures,
shimmer in the caves; ceiling murals have been painted directly onto the rough
contours of the rock.
- Corycian Cave, Greece
In ancient Greece this vast cave on Mount Parnassus
was a place of worship of the god Pan and the nymphs. A rock near the entrance
may have been used as an altar.
6. Bronze-Age Minoan Caves, Crete,
Greece
Crete has more than 3,000 caves, many associated with
the gods of Greek mythology and with goddess worship practiced by the Minoans,
a Bronze-Age civilization that lasted from 2600 to 1100 B.C. The Dikteon Cave
is said to be where Rhea gave birth to Zeus; the Idaian Cave, where Rhea hid
Zeus from his father, Cronus.
- St. Paul’s Grotto, Malta
In A.D. 60, St. Paul, then a Roman prisoner, was shipwrecked
on Malta and is said to have sheltered in this tiny cave. In the Bible, Acts 28
relates that Paul was treated well by the Maltese and that during his stay he
performed miraculous cures and survived a viper’s bite, leading the locals to
view him as a god.
- St. Michael’s Shrine, Italy
Christian legend says that this cave shrine in Monte
Sant’Angelo was chosen by the archangel Michael, who appeared to the Bishop of
Sipontum in A.D. 490 and promised, “Where the rocks open widely, the sins of
men may be pardoned.” It is said that Michael left an altar, a red cloth, and
his footprint in stone to mark the spot.
- Grotte de Font-de-Gaume, France
Bison, horses, and mammoths are among the animals
painted into the rough limestone walls of this cave in the Dordogne. Created at
least 15,000 years ago, the paintings still have vivid colors and a sense of
vitality. Their purpose may have been to do with hunting or with an attempt to
represent a lunar calendar.
- Sof Omar Caves, Ethiopia
It is said that Allah revealed the opening to this
limestone cave system to Sheikh Sof Omar in the 12th century. The sheikh and
his followers used the caves as a mosque, a purpose to which the caves were
well suited as they had been eroded into columns, buttresses, domes, vaults,
and pillars—a natural architectural marvel still used as a gathering place by local
Muslims.
www.tour-to-ethiopia.com, www.linkethiopia.org
www.tour-to-ethiopia.com, www.linkethiopia.org
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