Travel Guide Masrur

65 km southwest of McLeod Ganj. The fifteen Hindu temples of Masrur (or Masroor), the only rock monuments in North India not to have been built, but excavated from the rock in the 8th century, are an astonishing site. Like the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain temples of Ajanta and Ellora, carved out of the mountain, or the complex of monuments at Mahabalipuram, these monolithic sanctuaries have "petrified", fixed the forms of earlier architecture built from perishable materials. Successive earthquakes have damaged their structures. Can be visited on a day trip from McLeod Ganj.