Joe Rogan has gone down a new rabbit hole, and this time, it’s an 8th-century rock-cut temple in India that has left him absolutely stunned. While speaking to a guest on his podcast, Rogan said he spent the previous night watching a YouTube documentary on the Kailasa Temple at Ellora, and he hasn’t been able to get over what he saw. He called the “one of the most confusing” and unbelievable structures he has ever come across.

Joe Rogan stunned by India’s Kailasa Temple

Rogan started by explaining what shocked him the most: the fact that the entire temple was carved out of a single mountain, not built piece by piece. “The whole temple was entirely carved out of a mountain. It wasn’t built. They removed the mountain and created this insane, very symmetrical, incredibly intricate temple,” he said, adding that it doesn’t show “any chisel marks on it.”

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He told his guest that he had spent the previous night watching a full YouTube documentary on the structure, and that he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Dude, it’s bananas,” Rogan said. “It’s like hundreds of millions of tons of rocks have been removed.”

The Kailasa Temple is one of India’s greatest architectural achievements. The temple is located in the Ellora Caves complex, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Commissioned by Rashtrakuta king Krishna I, the Kailasa Temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva.

Rogan compared the precision of the Kailasa Temple to ancient Egyptian structures, saying this one might be “almost more impressive” because it is literally one continuous piece of stone.

“I’m trying to put myself in a position of someone who’s there physically and looking at this world. I’m sure I would be blown away. I’m sure you don’t have enough time in a month to really go over this place and really get a feel for it because it’s so insane,” he added.

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Inside the world’s largest monolithic rock-cut temple

During the conversation, Rogan and his team tried to figure out how old the temple actually is. He initially believed it might be 6,000 years old. He then corrected himself and recalled, “Okay, 756 to 777. So that’s like the year 773. So it’s even less than 2,000 years old… whoever made it, how?” Rogan repeatedly questioned how people, with the tools available in the 8th century, could create something so perfect.

Carved downward from the top, which means the creators didn’t have the option of fixing mistakes. Rogan explained in awe, “When you think about just the sheer effort of making this, and if one person messes this up, this whole project is ruined because you’re not building it. You’re carving it out of the mountain. You can’t recarve. And they did it perfectly.”

“Who asked for this? How long did it take? It’s so impressive. Whoever these people were, man… I wish they wrote books,” he added. 

As photos and videos popped up on screen during the podcast, Rogan reacted, “Look at these pillars. Look at this whole thing. It’s all carved out of the mountain. It’s so special… I’m barely grasping it.”

The Kailasa temple: What makes  it so extraordinary

The Kailasa Temple (also spelt Kailasha or Kailasanatha) is located in Ellora, Maharashtra. The temple was carved top-down from a single rock. An estimated 400,000 tons of rock were removed to create it. The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and symbolises Mount Kailash. The structure is about 276 feet long, 154 feet wide, and 107 feet tall.  It has intricate carvings from Hindu mythology. Some parts of the architecture also carry stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Life-sized elephant sculptures appear to “hold up” the temple at the entrance. It forms part of the Ellora Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.