Elephanta Island

Elephanta Island is one of a number of islands in Mumbai Harbour, east of Mumbai, India.Tourist attractions and accessibilityThis island is a popular tourist destination because of the island's cave temples, 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, 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.HistoryKnown in ancient times as Gharapuri, 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 and Albert Museum in Mumbai, by the British. This island was once the capital of a powerful local kingdom. In Manuscript F by Leonardo da Vinci there is a note in which he says 'Map of Elephanta in India which Antonello the heberdasher has.' It is unclear who this Florentine traveller Antonello might have been.