When most of us were growing up, we learned about a handful of man-made wonders of the world such as the pyramids in Egypt, the Colosseum in Rome, and the Great Wall of China. One that may have slipped right past you could have been the Kailashnath Temple in Maharashtra, India.
What's most amazing about the Kailashnath Temple is that it's carved out of one single rock. Carvers started at the top and excavated downward, exhuming the temple out of the existing rock. The traditional methods were rigidly followed by the master architect, which could not have been achieved by excavating from the front.
Dedicated to Hindu Lord Shiva, the temple was built between 756-774 CE by the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I and measures about 60 feet tall and 200 feet wide. All the carvings are done on more than one level. Originally flying bridges of stone connected these galleries to central temple structures, but they have since fallen. The base of the temple has been carved to suggest that elephants are holding the structure aloft.