Bhimbetka Caves - World Heritage Location

The location of Bhimbetka caves is just about 60 minutes drive away from the city of Bhopal. Cave paintings as old as 10,000 years can be found here. U.N has declared this location amongst the list of world heritage sites around the world.

Strangely enough, the tourism literature of M.P does not give more details about this place as it does about Khajuraho, Sanchi, Orchha, and Kanha and so on.

Location of Bhimbetka Caves

They are located 55 km away from Bhopal in the district of Raisen in Madhya Pradesh. A board hanging at the doorway of the caves informs that on July 2003 these caves attained their World Heritage status. The path from the entrance of these caves is an extremely winding one. It is flanked by shrubs, rocks, and trees on both of its sides before you ultimately reach the caves.

Not So Popular!

Sadly enough, Bhimbetka caves lack tourist attention as compared to other sites in Madhya Pradesh because of its comparatively low publicity. Consequently, not many people can be found visiting these caves which is an absolutely shocking fact if you consider the beauty of this place. There are guides to show you the interiors of the caves and tell you the history and story behind the carvings of these caves. Not many people come here, that's why when tourists come, the joy on the face of these guides can be easily witnessed as this is their only way of earning bread.  

Paintings From Chalcolithic, Mesolithic And Paleolithic Periods 

These caves are spread over an area of 10x4 km. Out of the 750 caves located at this place, only15 have been made accessible for the visitors, tourists and general public. These caves contain paintings and architecture belonging to extremely ancient periods dating back to the Chalcolithic, Mesolithic, and Paleolithic ages, making them belong to 2,000BC, 5,000BC, and 10,000BC respectively.

Zoo Rock Cave

This is the most well-known cave of this location as it contains paintings which date back to about 10,000 B.C. These paintings have been built with limestone with some of them belonging to the period between 5,000-7,000 years in the past. Some of them are also made with iron and vegetable colours. These paintings depict animals such as horses, bulls, elephants, antelopes, etc. Paintings created in 10,000 B.C are distinctly different from the ones which were created in 5,000 B.C which makes us wonder that whether animals evolved or humans became better artists during this period.

Other Paintings

Some caves contain paintings belonging to 2,000 B.C. These paintings depict humans wearing clothes as well as handling sophisticated weapons. These paintings are of much improved quality than the others. For instance, earlier paintings, those belonging to 10,000 B.C depicted horses in the form of line sketches only whereas the paintings of 2,000 B.C depict horses in a highly detailed manner.

Some caves also contain paintings depicting the daily life of ancient humans showing hunting scenes, group dances, etc.

Discovery:

An Ujjain archaeologist had discovered these caves in 1958. He saw distant rock formations while traveling by train and crossing this particular area. Later he returned to this location and eventually discovered the magnificent cave paintings after conducting a closer inspection. Only few tribals could be found in this area. The period 1958-1974 saw excavation being conducted in the vicinity of this area which led to the finding of various weapons, tools and skeletons which belonged to extremely ancient times. These findings have been put on display at numerous museums in Bhopal as well as elsewhere.

Final Word:

All the paintings, caves and interestingly shaped rock formations make this place an extremely worthwhile place to marvel at.