Entrance to the Cave of the Elephantadetails

We ascended an easy flight of stone steps to a plateau one hundred and fifty feet above the sea. [...] Passing to the centre of the plateau and turning to the right, we confronted a work of human art, gigantic and marvelous. It is a subterranean temple. the builders, beginning half-way up the mountain declivity, and cutting down perpendicularly, have removed the mountain-face to the depth of thirty feet, and to the width of three hundred feet. The perpendicular wall thus disclosed is of basalt. This rock, they have hewn and chiselled away to the very centre of the mountain, and wroughtit into a temple with perfect architectural forms and just proportions. The excavation consists of four chambers, the central one ismajestic with gateways, abutments, porches columns, pilasters, cornices, and vaulted ceilings, as complete and perfect as if, instead of having been carved in the rock, they had been detached from it, framed and erected on the ground. [...] In its centre, a deep recess twenty feet square, reaching from floor to roof, is surmounted by a bold arch. Within this recess is a colossal figure, or combination of figures, the triune god: Brahma representing the creative power, Vishnu the preserving power, and Siva the destroying power. Each of the figures is twice human size. [...] (pp. 489-1)

The plate is signed by N. Orr, and I think dated 00.